Wow - we are now in Osaka and it`s the third city we’ve been to since the last blog! We`ve just had an amazing Balinese meal with the most tender chicken satay I’ve ever had and an amazing spicy chicken soup with glass noodles. The waiters were extremely bouncy and it was great to find such a lovely restaurant just down the street from our hostel - a relief as we’ve had a full-on day`s sightseeing in Nara and are feeling rather weary.

I`ve got a lot to catch up on. Last time I blogged we were on the small island of Naoshima. We stayed there two days and had a wonderful time wandering around the contemporary art installations with my friends Minako and Ian from Liverpool. Minako suggested Naoshima to me months ago but it turned out that not only were they going to be in Japan at the same time as us but they were heading to Naoshima on the same day as us too! We met up at Okayama station which was a huge relief for me as getting to Naoshima involved two trains and a ferry, and Minako had already worked out the travel schedule so we just had to follow her. The weather was wonderful on the first day and the ferry ride was lovely in the sunshine. When we arrived at Naoshima, Minako and I got very excited about a huge red and black pumpkin sculpture by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, whose work is very fun and colourful. It turns out that Minako and I like to photograph very similar things so poor Ian and Darren had to wait whilst we cooed over many beautiful views and artworks and snapped away!

We then hopped on the one island bus to Bennesse House Museum. Bennesse are the corporation responsible for making Naoshima an art island and their museum is also a hotel. Darren and I loved walking from the bus stop to the museum, passing lots of wonderful outdoor sculptures including another pumpkin! We didn`t stay at the museum as it is over 200 pounds a night but loved looking around and seeing works by people we know such as Warhol and Hockney, and lots we didn`t. We watched a beautiful sunset from the balcony of the museum. We met up with Minako and Ian for dinner at Cinnamon the curry rice restaurant / small b&B where Darren and I were staying (for a mere 35 pounds each!) before Darren and I experienced modern art in quite a unique way - we went off to the local baths which are an art installation. Men and women bathe in separate baths but both are watched over by Sadoko the elephant (I`ve never showered whilst being watched by and elephant before) and the floor of the bath is covered with a patchwork of photos and woodblock prints and adverts. It was quite an experience.

The next morning we had a good breakfast of egg, rice and miso soup before we set of for the art house projects - a section of Naoshima with 6 houses that have been turned into artworks. They were all fascinating and totally different from the dentist house with a huge statue of liberty pushing up through the floors to a totally dark house where you sat in total darkness for ten minutes looking at a dim light in front of you. After a vegetarian meal of rice balls (one sour plum, one seaweed) and soya soup followed by with soya ice-cream with sweet beans, we dashed in to see the gallery/ cafe where Ian and Minako stayed to see a small but very fun photograph exhibition and then dashed for the bus, ferry and four trains to take us to Kyoto.

We finally arrived in Kyoto pretty late and headed to our lodgings for the next couple of days - a Buddhist temple called Shunkoin. We were greeted by friendly Rev Taka and then headed out for dinner at one of his recommended restaurants Raku Raku. There is only one chef there and he is extremely earnest about his food. There`s no menu so he makes dishes up especially for you after finding out what you like and photographs each one before he serves it. We had a platter for two with amazing grilled/ blowtorched fish, seared fish, amazing salad, tofu, pickles, homemade mayonnaise and a dark dipping sauce. I washed this feast down with three glasses of the chef`s homemade plum wine!

The next day I slept until 9.30 (a lie-in by a long way these days) and then Darren and I had a private meditation class with Ren Taka then a tour of the temple which included seeing some beautiful painted screens before he served us with Matcha tea and sweet rice biscuits. It was the most wonderful start to our two days in Kyoto. We then padded off in light rain to see Fushimi shrine which has hundreds of tori gates making a corridor up the hillside. We didn`t walk the whole 4km as it was rainy pretty heavily by then but went to Sanjusanendo temple which has 1001 gold statues surrounding a large gold Buddha and all watched over by 28 fierce sculptures of deities. It is quite a spectacle. On the way we found a little antique/ vintage shop where we did a little shopping! Rev Taka recommended an exhibition at Kyoto National Museum showing the collection and artefacts of one samurai family so we headed over there after stopping at the cafe for cocoa and royal milk tea (which Darren was very disappointed in - rather than an English brew it was more like hot milk with potpourri!). The exhibition was excellent with amazing artefacts from 3-4 century BC to the 16th century and our spirits were only dampened by the torrential downpour that we had to walk back in. After turning into drowned rats we stopped to eat and warm up at an okonmiyaki restaurant and I had a jumbo modern okonomiyaki with lots of noodles - I didn`t manage to finish it but I did leave room for a yuki dango -an ice cream ball surrounded in mochi (rice cake) which we took back to the temple to eat in clean dry pyjamas!

I`ve another two days to blog but I`m afraid sleep is creeping up on me. Will update next time I find a PC!