We board our first bullet train. Headed to Osaka, this was to be or base for the next week, where we would shoot off to all the citys and towns close by… well, close by when you can use the shinkansen!

On our first use of it I had an app on my phone to measure the speed we were travelling at via gps, it peaked at 185 mph! I felt like it was faster at some points, but i guess its hard to tell. Looking out the window and having the scenery change so fast is something really special. It was one of the many moments in my life, especilly those in Japan, where I feel I am really living in the future.

Osaka felt like Tokyo’s younger brother, it was similiar in a lot of ways but it was… rougher around the edges, not as polished as its bigger brother. Even the people didnt seem as well pressed and perfect as the ones in Tokyo. It was a good home for a while and it felt more like real life. Like when you go to London, or New York or Paris! You know people live their, but its so big and fast and extreme. So here we found some real living.

We had been doing alot of cooking in the Airbnb’s as well as buying the premade up meals from the supermarket, anything from sashimi to noodle soup and the thousand crazy things inbetween. If the quality was any less than resteraunt food, well we did not have the experience to tell. It is and was good food, for a fraction of the price. Although with one exception, we have sampled enough ramen resteraunts to pick out the good ones! A good ramen seems to have a flavour so deep and complex that it changes as you eat the meal, with handmade noodles a perfeectly softboiled egg and the most tendor of fatty pork cuts, bamboo shoots! Crispy seaweed wafers and… wait what was I talking about again.

So from Osaka we had many day trips! Our shinkansen in its hanger was ready to take us to all the places around Osaka we needed to see.

Nara, the town of wild deer roaming around temples. They seem cute and innocent, then you buy the deer food and they know… They chase you down for those crackers. Still have fluffy nightmares.

Himeji, The largest castle in Japan still standing. A very beautiful sight and for anyone else who loves the Total War Shogun game, you will be in your element.

Kobe, A tranquil harbour city with some the beef that was so good, some guy thought… “yeah, im gonna name my son after this… and buy him a basketball!”

Hiroshima, humbling and powerful.

But, we leave Osaka for now, the cherry blossoms bloom being so short and our golden ticket rail card so expensive, we have lots to see and not much time to do it.

Shinkansen… TO KYOTO!