First a picture from yesterday. Kevin’s kid said it was OK to post her picture in front of the only cherry blossoms we saw in Kyoto at Kiyomizudera.

We stayed at the edge of Dotombori last night at an APA Hotel and everyone agreed with me that it was tiny but clean and efficient. Everything you really needed in a room and it was only $84 per night. Somehow we all thought we got breakfast in Tokyo but no breakfast in Osaka but the opposite was true. I’m not sure what’s wrong with booking.com.

I forgot to mention just how happy I was to be back in Osaka. I’m not sure why because it was just as crowded and dirtier, but I used to live there and I just like it.

We had breakfast at the hotel and of course I forgot to take a picture until after I’d eaten a bunch of it. I had scrambled egg rolls, sausage, yakisoba, fish, and a croissant as well as salad but all you can see is miso soup, natto on rice, and my coffee.

Then I decided to take them back through Dotombori, which was empty at 8am. This bridge is packed with people later in the day with lots of people getting pictures with the Glico man in the background.

We walked to Hozenji where the Mizukakefudou is. Still all covered in moss.

Then we got a cab to Tsutenkaku (no picture, I forgot) which wasn’t quite open and after that we went to Sumiyoshi Taisha where the only picture I have is of the turtle pond and the arched bridge. It’s the oldest shrine in Japan and gets visits from sumo and the emperor so it’s a big deal. Very peaceful and I bought an amulet to avoid calamity and an amulet to deal gracefully with calamity. I know how the Fujinaka luck is.

After that they wanted to go up Tsutenkaku, but I said we should go up Abeno Harukas instead. I asked the taxi driver if it was full and crowded like Tokyo’s Shibuya Scramble Square, but he said, “It costs ¥3000. Osaka people aren’t going up there.” Hahaha.

I wish I had a picture of the Tsutenkaku from up here but I forgot to take a picture in that direction. At 103m, it looks tiny from Abeno Harukas which is 300m tall.

We didn’t have a chance to go to Shitennoji (see the pagoda in the middle?)

or Osaka Castle (the tiny white thing next to the two black buildings a little left and above center) but we did see them from here.

Kevin and his kid were getting a caricature drawn so Bill and I decided to walk to the edge of the top of the building. They’re very safety conscious and make you empty out your pockets and give you a strap for your glasses. After they run a metal detector over you, you put on coveralls and a harness.

We even leaned over the edge with some extra restraints, but it wasn’t very scary. Not like climbing radio towers.

We were going to Kuromon market or another shopping street for lunch, but we decided just to head to Shin-Osaka station so we wouldn’t miss ANOTHER shinkansen. Here’s my omurice/curry/katsu.

The trip back was mostly uneventful. I slept from Kyoto to Nagoya, as I do, and tried to take pictures of Mt. Fuji. It was too cloudy on the way to Kyoto. It’s not that easy taking pictures from a train going 300kph.

But enough pictures and you can get at least one.

We were pretty tired and were planning on eating combini food, but I convinced everyone to try Mos burger and luckily they liked it.

Back at the hotel I got all of my sister’s packages (and my repaired jeans) and it looked huge.

But it’s just Amazon packaging. No problem at all.