We arrived in Tokyo very early, just after 5am, as the city was awakening. Before we went through immigration I had my first experience with Japanese public toilets! As I lowered myself to the seat I took stock of the various buttons "spray", "dry", "bidet" etc with their accompanying illustrations, and then I was startled to hear the loud sound of rushing water. I thought I must have touched one of these buttons by accident and was about to get doused - head to toe by the sounds of it so I turned to the source of the noise and found a speaker! It was the sound of rushing water to relax you and facilitate your ablutions! Of course! After processing the electronic fingerprints and photos, we collected our luggage and then sat and waited the 90 minutes until the Japan Rail office at Haneda opened, so we could obtain our rail passes, and book our seats on the train for this afternoon. After that it was a feast of different rail transport, starting with a monorail into Hamamatsucho, then a city train to Shinagawa, the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka-shin, then the rapid train to Osaka. Unfortunately we had no view of Mt Fuji on this trip, so we consoled ourselves with a box of pocky! Twas bright and sunny in Tokyo, but it became somewhat cloudy on the trip south. There was snow still in fields by the train line and on roofs (yes, I googled that word to be sure of its spelling). We were totally amazed by how helpful and friendly people are. Every time we got out a map to check our directions, someone would rush over to ask where we wanted to go, and then insist on walking us to our destination, "we go together". At Hamamatsucho, it was a lady who worked for Japan Airlines, and here at Osaka station, which is really huge and has many exits, it was a little man who walked us to the Hilton. The concierge here at the Hilton goes to Australia every year to visit her old exchange host family in Ipswich up near Brisbane. Dinner - oh dear, I must confess. But first you must know that my osteoarthritis regressed about five years this afternoon. I think it was a combination of all the walking, moments of lifting the suitcase over bumps and gaps and things, the sitting upright in the plane, and the swelling of the joint caused by the plane. I am devastated. We are hoping for surgery next year, but I have this year to get through first. Sooooo ........ for dinner, I didn't want to walk too far and Tom had read somewhere that our hotel has two floors in the basement of eateries - we found an Italian restaurant totally staffed by Japanese that also served Spanish sangria! So we had Japanese Caesar salad, followed by Japanese margarita pizza washed down with Japanese sangria! Maybe tomorrow I will feel more adventurous. I think I wanted comfort food. The people are incredibly polite, helpful, and they all dress sooooo nicely!