Osaka, the last day

Today was the last day of being in Osaka. We checked out, left the big suitcase with the front desk and went out to look at the last day of the big Golden Week sales. Today was a shopping day for omiyage and for souvenirs for friends. I also wanted to check out some electronics.
We got there at 10 am and found out we were still too early. Everything in the area opens at 11 am. So we went into a Mr. Donut and wasted some time with a donut and some water.
We started wandering around at 11 am and many shops were still not open. We looked at Japanese anime stores and random electronic goods. Though there were some decent deals for very old stuff, most electronics were still very expensive.
After we moved onto the big main shopping area of Osaka again. We looked at some stores where we had been two days before but now there were less people. We ended up going into America Town and it was funny to see Japanese people trying to look North American even though we would never wear such clothes. We ate some decent Indian curry for lunch.
Then we slowly made our way back to the hotel. We picked up our suitcase and took the train to Kyoto. The last leg of our trip! Nooooo.... It's going by so fast!
The hotel in Kyoto is really nice, it's called the Costa del Sol, and despite it's name is a Japanese style hotel, similar to a ryokan but more modern.

Kobe

FOR day three in Osaka we went to Kobe! I saw a bit of already it on the train trip to Himeji and it looked really clean and airy. We left in the morning and we got there around 11 am. It was so nice! It has a small town feel with a many good sized areas. |The closest I could think of was how some areas of Vancouver feel like. We first visited the shopping area near Sannomiya station where we got off. There are many small streets but also big streets and lots of interesting little stores. Then we visited the European area. We walked around and up and down the hill quite a bit but it was very quaint. I also saw the coolest Starbucks ever! It was in an old Victorian house and it was very nice and fit in with the area.
We had lunch at a small homemade Italian restaurant. The food was expensive and the pasta was not great, though Jen said the pizza as pretty good.
We then went to Chinatown, it looked very Chinese-ish and had lots of my favourite Chinese sweet, sesame balls! It was pretty small but there were a lot of people lining up to go to a restaurant there.
We moved on to the harbor and when we got there we saw the end of a festival! It was happening in front of the marine museum. There were many interesting boats on display, people selling stuff, flea market items, and lots of food vendors. I tried Tacoyaki and I found out it tastes a lot like Okonomiyaki, except without the noodles and the batter is rolled into a ball with a bit of octopus in the middle. I thought it was pretty tasty. We looked around a bit more then moved on to the stores in the harbor area. I ended up having a Big Mac for supper since we were too late to go to a local place to eat.
We got back and went to sleep early, checkout was at 9am the next morning!

Western Japan trip

Well today we leave for our great western Japan trip! It's currently pouring rain in Yokosuka, however it looks like it's going to be fairly warm and sunny for the rest of the time in Hiroshima, Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto!

Everything is packed, the house is clean and I'm just making the final preparations.