We're absolutely loving Japan! The next stop for us was Osaka - apologies in advance, this might be a bit of a dull blog as there's not a great deal to do in Osaka apart from explore the city.

So, we got a local train from Kyoto to Osaka which only took about an hour. It's great experiencing first hand the efficiency that Japan prides itself on - even the local trains are on time to the second. It was late afternoon when we arrived, so after dumping our bags we headed out for some food.

The further from Tokyo we've gotten, the less English there has been around, but we still managed to work out the subway fare cost to Dotonbori. Dotonbori is a lively area that's as bright as Times Square at night with it's famous running man and giant pinching crab lit up.

For dinner, as we can't understand most menus, we've taken to picking restaurants that have a queue of local people outside so we know that they're good. Our technique certainly didn't disappoint! We ended up in a sushi restaurant that had a conveyor belt with dishes on. It was cool to see the chefs there in front of you making the dishes and putting them on the track. Between us we tried 10 plates, each costing ¥130 (78p), including salmon, red snapper, tuna, cuttlefish, and octopus. Naturally, it was up there with some of the best sushi we've ever had!

To begin our first full day in Osaka we walked to the Osaka castle and park. It was a beautiful, sunny day so we strolled around and took some snaps of the glorious castle. At most tourist hot spots around Japan, we've had small groups of secondary school children approach us to practice their English by asking us set questions and have a photo with us in order to complete their homework. They're very polite about it and are so keen to learn our language, we feel very privileged. We've even received origami as a gift for taking the time to talk with them!

Next we went to Nipponbashi Den Den town, a small version of Akihabara (the electronic district) in Tokyo. It wasn't quite so crazy but we found a delicious Katsu curry for lunch. From there we got the subway to Shinsaibashi and rapidly walked past all the designer shops to Amerika-Mura (America Town). America Town was filled with lots of artistic graffiti, cool street lamps designed to look like people, clothes shops, a mini Statue of Liberty and even a cool, hidden Alice in Wonderland jewellery shop. Our walk led us back to Dotonbori - it was cool to see it again in daylight.

Just as we were about to board a subway to Namba, we looked in the carriage and noticed that there was only women; a quick glance left revealed a sign that it was a female only carriage! So we had to quickly leg it to the next carriage which Max could board. We're unsure why they have female only carriages in Japan. For our last evening in Osaka we went up to the Umeda Floating Garden Observatory that gave great views of the city. To get to the top, we had to go on the world's highest escalator - definitely not for those that fear heights! After Nevis, we can handle anything.

The next morning it was raining - our first dreary day in Japan - so we went to Osaka aquarium which is dubbed to be one of the best aquariums in the world. It had a great layout and some cool stuff we'd never seen before such as a whale shark. You start on the 8th floor and then spiral down to the ground. On the ground floor is a tank where you can touch manta rays and bamboo sharks.

Due to Steph's eagerness we got to the train station about 40 minutes early in time for our Shinkansen to Hiroshima.

To finish, we wanted to mention Japan's toilets. Western style toilets are available pretty much everywhere, and there's something special about them. They come with a remote control that contains all sorts of buttons. Our favourite button is definitely to warm the toilet seat up - you never have to worry about having a cold bum! Why hasn't Britain caught on to this? Other buttons include sound (usually of running water), bidet and to lift the toilet seat up and down.

Steph and Max x