Back to civilisation today! We left the mountains and Koyasan for the concrete jungle of Osaka. My first impressions are really good - it's quite an ugly city but it comes alive at night with all the crazy neon (it's how I expected Tokyo to be). And all the people here seem younger and look more interesting. And instead of being teeny stick insects, the girls here seem to have boobs and hips which is making me feel less of a freakshow! Don and Jim are loving it...

I suppose it's probably quite a Westernised city with the ginormous shopping arcades (we visited some in Dotombori and Shinsaibashi) but it makes a nice change from the sparse ascetism of Koyasan. And we've dived in feet first: we satisfied our pizza cravings! And then Don and Jim had a Big Mac because they were still hungry. And then we went to Starbucks (they're the only place that sell proper cuppas!). We're going to capitalist hell... But we have eaten Japanese food 95% of the time, honest! Jim would like it to be known that we're not philistines but at some point you have to say no to fish.

It's been a pretty lazy day really but the highlight was the neon skyline on Ebisu-bashi (the bridge in Dotombori). The new hostel seems nice too. We're off to Nara for the day tomorrow (more temples, yippee!!!) and then on Friday I think we'll go choose me a new camera.

Hope you're all well, miss you lots x x x

P.S. Jim won quote of the day. The conversation went something like this... Donald asked why do paedophiles go to Thailand instead of Japan if there's no age of consent in Japan. And Jim replied "the food's a lot more expensive in Japan, even paedos have to eat."