The Day Before The Night After

This feels weird... we travelled over the international date line today so arrived earlier than when we left, it now feels like we have had two July 14ths! I am sure my mama is worrying about the lack of a blip yesterday, but don't worry, we just had to do Saturday all over again before I blipped!

Anyway, in the first 14th, which I mentioned yesterday, we had arrived late and working our way through Osaka train station, then how to get out the subway station to street level, was a nightmare. When we made it to the hotel, which wasn't far away, we chilled out before decided to take an early morning (1am) stroll round the Dōtonbori district (extra #2 photo 1) which centres around a canal flowing straight through it. The walls of the buildings are covered with billboards and video screens, it is quite in your face!  The streets were bustling and rows and rows were full of this advertising, clubs, restaurants. If felt significantly different to anywhere we'd been before, and for myself anyway, wasn't immediately taken with it.

In the morning, after working out how to read the subway directions (it is actually easy), finding a fabulous bakers (I had a sort of roll with bacon and asparagus) and getting our airport train tickets, we returned to the area where there was a cultural festival on down the banks, so much more civilised - extra #2 photo 2. 

As we headed for the subway we passed this amusement arcade store where we just heard constant clattering. There were rows and rows of people sitting at machines with steelies (balls) being dropped from the top and depending where they landed, they got points, maybe money, but probably more steelies. It might remind me of a game you find on your phone, but the noise of this place was unbelievable and people of all ages were engrossed with their games. And that is the main blip!

We then subwayed up to Osaka Castle (temple), came upon a small stage where there were a rock band playing which we watched for a while, before braving the sun/heat for the castle... extra #2 photo 3.

Extra 1 shows various views of the castle, it was really tall, but the inside had been converted to a museum with an elevator to the top for views over the city. There were 2 moats with massive walls around it! I always think about how visitors must think about Edinburgh Castle in the middle of the city on a rock, but this is probably comparable!

Before heading for the train from the hotel, we dashed up to a skyline bar in the hotel which had views over the city for a quick drink and cool down - which worked. Extra #2 photo 4 is a view down the tracks as we were waiting. This was our last train as part of our railpass :-( It's been great making the cities so close and not having a day long trip. Kansai airport is on an island several miles out to sea, so the train and road goes along a kind of pier to get to it.

After a quick meal, we boarded our flight to Honolulu at 23:00. Sleep on it was not too good and we arrived at 12:10 in the afternoon, the second 14th having crossed the dateline. We were a bit shattered so slept a few hours while "we" did some laundry then headed to Waikiki Beach area via bus, first for a meal (Ms H said she didn't know if it was breakfast, lunch or dinner!), then a paddle on the beach - extra #3. On Monday we head for the beach, so we are looking forward to that!

Having spent the same day in 2 advanced countries with money and technology, it was apparent how different they were. Japan, from what we have seen so far, is all about service. They apologise for having a queue (even like 1 minute) and are so courteous. On the train, the attendants when passing through would bow before entering and on leaving, turn round and bow; an elderly department shop assistant was still bowing to someone who had already turned and was walking away. We were greeted by everyone. We saw people cleaning escalator handles, ceiling air conditioning vents (our would be dusty), building site workers manned by people directing pedestrians at 1am in the morning.. I will not keep going on, but this was the biggest difference we could see with any other country we had been, service is paramount and they don't take shortcuts when it comes to doing a job properly. I think Ms C had read that when these workers return to their personal life, then it is different, but when they are working, they excel... we might be missing some of that and I include myself :-)

Anyway, hoping it is Sunday tomorrow and not Saturday again...