Today was to be my first full day in Osaka, and as such I wanted to spend it getting my bearings of the area immediately surrounding the hotel. I started my morning by waking early to partake of the hotel breakfast. It was simple fare, but good none the less, a buffet style breakfast half Japanese, half what in England would be called continental. I chose some small soft breads and fruit, and it did just the job. I also managed to exchange the instant coffee from my room for extra green tea with the house keeper, so all in all a good start! I then completed the mundane task of washing my clothes at the hotel facilities, and headed off to start my exploration.

As you can probably tell from my earlier posts, finding a working ATM in Japan has been challenging to say the least. Overnight, however, I had received some sound advice from Natalie back in the UK, namely, try a post office. On consultation of a map the hotel furnished me with, I located a branch only five minutes from the hotel and low and behold, cash was withdrawn without so much as a pause for breath. As I mentioned in a previous post, the hotel I am staying at is ideally located for me in a sort of downtown area, complete with streets lined with all kinds of boutiques and eateries. While searching through this area I stumbled across a very Japanese Raman style bar, and decided to stop for lunch. I was instantly impressed by the warm welcome and glass of water I was provided with, even though the staff spoke not a word of English. I was quickly seated upon a bar stool at the serving counter, and handed a menu. I ordered a sort of set meal called Jan Jan (I think it was some kind of lunch time offer). I chose from the pictures as obviously I could not decipher the writing, but it was a good choice. I had a plate of skewers, like the kind you will find at parties and buffets, of various battered meats (beef, chicken, pork and some kind of sausage), prawns and potato. Also included was a bowl of rice, some salad (which I ate as well, so no worries there mum!), some miso soup and the traditional pickles. All this plus an additional free glass of water came to a grand total of about £3, not bad!

I finished my afternoon wanderings by picking up some essentials at a local grocery store and then headed back to the hotel for a quiet night in, as tomorrow I plan to journey to Kyoto to visit the various cultural attractions rumored to reside there!