Happy birthday Charlotte! My eldest daughter is a teenager today. 13 years gone by too damn quickly.

Nothing serious on the agenda for today, so we made up the day's itinerary on the fly. Originally on the agenda for today was the Phillosophers Path, and various other cherry blossom viewing spots around Kyoto. Mother Nature however has had other ideas, and the cherry blossoms are still merely buds. Some of the trees are showing signs of pink and white as the buds are beginning to open, but they're still days away.

So, not feeling like spending a day walking around looking at bare sticks, we had to come up with a Plan B.

We left the hotel relatively late by our standards, at around 7:30am. First on the agenda after yesterday's 12 hour marathon halfway across Japan, was coffee. Around 15 mins walk from our apartment is the Starucks Sanjo-ohashi, which overlooks the Kamogawa River, so this was first stop on the agenda before anything else.

Mt Koya was always somewhere I've wanted to visit, so we began investigating a trip there. As a bonus today, depending on which weather report you read, it was either raining, or lightly snowing on Mt Koya. Snow on My Koya sounded very inviting, but after coming to the realisation that from Kyoto, Mt Koya is a considerable trek to the South East of Osaka, and wouldn't see us arrive until after lunchtime. Thus, we shelved these plans, and just decided to spend the day in Osaka instead.

Sakura began opening in Osaka on 30th March, however by all accounts there wasn’t much to see yet, which is ok by us, since there isn’t really anywhere in Osaka which is on our "must see" Sakura site list.

Since visiting in 2008, Charlotte always wanted to go back to Umeda Sky Building in Osaka, and since it’s her birthday we were happy to let her set the agenda, so we set off in that direction. Outside of Osaka station, we didn’t get far before being distracted by young cherry blossoms starting to bloom, and a few steps later, a giant 10 story distraction in the form of Yodobashi Camera Umeda, which is a giant department store dedicated to electronics, with a bunch of other stores, and a restaurant floor, thrown in for good measure.

The price of electronics in Japan never ceases to amaze me. In Australia we’re pretty used to paying extra for anything we need to get shipped in (which is pretty much everything). But in Japan, essentially the birthplace of all things tech, you’d expect the sheer market size, and competition would mean that prices remained very competitive. Actually no. Prices here for technology are surprisingly expensive. Ranging from around the same price to Australia, up to around 30% more expensive for identical items. I’m just not sure why.

Charlotte browsed through the seemingly neverending expanse of tech in search of something for her birthday, but after considerable time searching gave up. Instead of heading out though we headed up, to the 8th floor, the restaurant floor, in search of lunch.

Only yesterday I expressed my apathy towards okonomiyaki. I never expected to have my opinion changed to dramatically just 24 hours later. The lunch I had today was, without any word of exageration, one of the best meals I’ve ever had in Japan. It was that damn good.

We came across the okonomiyaki restaurant in question, and instantly Charlotte wanted in. Each table has a scalding hotplate built into it, and your order is assembled by a passing waitstaff person, and left to cook at your table, before you consume it using a metal spatula straight off the hotplate.

Despite sitting within inches of an insanely hot bbq plate, and getting my eyebrows singed in the process, the preparation of lunch at the table was a lot of fun. Unable to accommodate all 5 of us at a single table, Veronica sat with Isabelle at a table for 2, and I sat with Charlotte and Angela at a table for 3.

Our orders of modan-yaki, which is okonomiyaki with the addition of fried noodles in addition to the cabbage, were soon cooking away in front of us, and we realised we’d made a mistake. A big mistake. These things were absolutely massive. Easily frisbee sized, and 2 inches thick, we knew we were going to struggle to get through it.

We were right…as much as we tried, we were simply unable to finish all of the food. It was however, quite simply amazing.

Next, a walk was in order, so again we set off in the direction of the Umeda Sky Building. Again, we got distracted. This time by the massive ferris wheel dominating the skyline sticking out of the HEP Five shopping arcade. It didn’t take much convincing for us to alter our plans once again, and we soon found ourselves on the ferris wheel looking out over 360 degree views of the city.

That was the last of the relaxing elements of the day’s travels, because what came next was, in hindsight, a mistake. Dotombori on a Saturday night. If you’re considering it, just don’t do it. It isn’t worth it. I’m not sure how it passes for quality Saturday night entertainment to be squashed together with a hundred thousand other people while queuing for long periods of time for copious amounts of often overpriced and questionable quality food, and to “people watch” the same hundred thousand people do exactly the same thing you’re doing (i.e. queuing for food and “people watching”).

It’s just pointless. Maybe I’m old. Maybe I’m just not as cool as I used to be. Whatever it is, I just don’t get it. Dotombori is a fantastic place to be, but visit it on a weekday night when the crowds are less than breaking point, because then you’ve got some hope of being able to try the restaurants you want to try, and see the attractions you want to see, without being elbow to elbow with slow moving strangers all trying to move in different directions for a million different reasons.

Needless to say, our stint at Dotombori absolutely exhausted us, which gave us no option but to backtrack through the 3 or 4 train changes, and the final shinkansen trip to get back to Kyoto and the comfort of our hotel.

Osaka, once again, has left me underwhelmed. If I had to pick a “least favorite” city in Japan, Osaka would be it. I’m glad we went today, but it reminds me again why we generally don’t spend a lot of time there on our Japan holidays.

Tomorrow….we have no idea. Again the fact that there are no sakura in bloom in Kyoto is forcing us to reassess our plans.

We’re thinking maybe a trip to Nara in the morning, or possibly a trip south of Osaka to Wakayama, since we’ve never been there. Knowing our track record so far this trip, it will be neither of these things.