So far, every single one of the days has been a non-stop activity packed 12+ hour day, so today we made a conscious effort to slow down.

So obviously, this means that today we walked 10+ kilometers, and trekked around for a little over 12 hours today before returning home exhausted. So exhausted in fact that for the first time this trip I'm typing this blog the next morning, rather than on the same night. When we got home I sat down for a "short break", and fell asleep pretty much instantly. Veronica apparently tried to wake me up to do the blog, but failed miserably, so taking pity on me she let me sleep.

On the way home on the final train for the day, when I suggested that we should book a relaxing holiday next time, pretty sure it crossed Veronica’s mind to open the door and throw me out at speed.

Wakayama, a coastal city south of Osaka has always been on the to-do list, but unavailability of accommodation and time on previous trips have always seen it be left off the itinerary. Today however, we decided to give it a shot.

So we set out fairly late by our standards, just after 9am, and headed to our ritual morning stop, the Starbucks by the river for our usual orders of caramel machiatos and hot cocoas.

We’re getting good at this now. Other tourists are beginning to ask us for assistance and directions almost invariably each time we venture out, since we look like we know what we’re doing. This time in Starbucks it was a loud American mother, and her bewildered looking daughter, who were completely befuddled trying to work out where the subway was, and how to catch it. After explaining the concepts of "underground", “subway station” and “ticket” to these intellectual powerhouses, they were on their way. I’m pretty sure I could still hear the mother talking when she way halfway across the bridge heading for the subway station (and we were still inside the cafe).

So a now familiar Shinkansen ride to Shin-Osaka, and with a little time to kill we explored Shin-Osaka station, which had an interesting variety of restaurants and stores. One interesting pop-up that has occurred since we last visited in 2014 has been the proliferation of the “upper class convenience store”. On previous trips, bento boxes and train foods were always cheap, and always delicious, but generally not very pretentious. Since then however tastes and budgets appear to have changed, leading to more and more stores offering much fancier looking dining options for your train ride.

And these stores are always packed full of people. For example, the one we visited today were preparing fresh wagyu beef bento boxes, with customers queueing up while the chef grilled the wagyu beef strips and loaded them into the bento before being handed over to customers. They looked spectacular, but the queue meant that we had to skip it this time, as I estimate we would have missed the train. Also at this store was an extensive bakery section, where customers could select from a range of pies, cakes and tarts as good as I’ve ever seen anywhere.

Due to time constraints we settled on snacks of spiral cut potatoes and some delicious deep fried pork skewers, and were on our way to the platform. Since we didn’t have reservations for the train cars 2 and 3 being the unreserved cars were our only option, so we queued with the rest of the cheapskates in an attempt to get a seat for the hour long journey to Wakayama. We needed have worried however, as it was only around 50% full.

The agenda for Wakayama was pretty much open for today. We only intended on spending a few hours there just to see the castle and surrounding grounds, which had just started blooming with sakura. There is apparently a lot more to do there, and given a few days I’d happily explore the area as it seemed very pretty, but I’m not sure that there is enough there to make me plan to go there at the expense of something else on the itinerary. Except for Osaka. I’d happily go there instead of Osaka.

Weather today was absolutely perfect. Probably the nicest day we’ve ever had in Japan. So, with big queues for the bus, we decided to walk the couple of kilometre walk from the train station to the castle grounds. We began wondering if a zombie apocalypse had occurred. The main street, which was easily 75m wide and 8 lanes, plus gardens and medium strips, was completely empty. Almost no cars. No pedestrians. No shops open. The place was just shut down. It was surreal. We could have walked down the middle of the road for miles and nobody would have noticed.

As we neared the castle grounds, we heard signs of other human life. It seemed that the entire town was gathered at the castle for the start of the sakura season. Still not what I’d call crowded, but definitely alive with activity, with festival drums beating in the background we approached the castle and crossed the moat via a very pretty bridge with some of the largest coy fish under it that I’ve ever seen. Obviously well fed, these fish would stick their heads 6 inches out of the water in anticipation of catching any food the humans would throw down to them.

Across the bridge and inside the castle ground, there was groups of people with picnic blankets all having “hanami” parties, which is picnics under the cherry blossom trees, as well as rows of vendors selling all manner of overpriced, but delicious looking festival foods.

Access to the sakura wasn’t a problem with the manageable crowds, as we snaked our way through the castle grounds, and up the hill towards the castle itself. I can imagine that these grounds will get insanely busy within the next few weeks, and probably gives us a glimpse of the crowd levels we’ll be facing in our near future, but for today it was very enjoyable.

Wakayama castle is, what I’d call, majestic but unremarkable. Very pretty, as all Japanese castles are, this one sits in a small surrounding castle grounds, on a tiny hill, surrounded by office buildings and TV towers much taller than itself. As a result, it just doesn’t exhibit the commanding majesty of other castles we’ve been to, such as Matsumoto and Himeji, my 2 personal favourites.

Since the castle was a recreation and time was ticking away, we decided to not go in, and instead returned down the “mountain” and back into the festival grounds to make our way home. By now the temperature was approaching “hot”, and jackets were off, so we made our way to the bus stop for the ride back to the station. In hindsight we probably should have done the same on the way to the castle, but the walk was nice.

Upon arriving at the station, and attempting to book tickets, we were greeted by another delay, yet again caused by another “human damage accident”, JR code for “suicide”, at the next train station. These incidents make the JR staff very concerned, and very apologetic, and seem to invariably make the Japanese commuters irate, instead of sympathetic, which they then take out on the poor JR staff. I only wish I knew enough Japanese to step in and tell the passengers to back off. I was tempted to do it in English today.

I’m getting the impression that suicide by train is viewed as selfish and inconvenient, rather than tragic and saddening as it still seems to me. With 2 incidents in just 2 days just at the tiny number of stations we’ve been through on this trip however, we’ve either been unlucky, or this is becoming more common, since I don’t remember it being an issue in any of our other 3 Japan trips.

So with time to kill (pardon the pun) we had the first crepes of the trip and the adjoining shopping and restaurant complex. The crepe store was easily the most popular store in the station, and when we got our crepes we realised why. They were absolutely delicious. Custard, chocolate, bananas, strawberries and vanilla ice cream all wrapped up in a soft fluffy and still warm crepe tasted just as magnificent as you’re imagining they are.

With our train still no closer to boarding, we decided to make our own way back to Kyoto, which meant catching a slower train on a different line to Osaka station, then making a few train changes to arrive back at Shin-Osaka station and back onto the Shinkansen bound for Kyoto.

With yesterday being so busy, we didn’t get to go out for Charlotte’s planned birthday dinner, so that was postponed until tonight. Her choice was the inventively named Bikkuri Donkey, or “Surprise Donkey” restaurant, 10 minutes walk from our apartment.

After a not insignificant wait for a table we were shown to our booth and given English menus, and the standard 2 foot tall, highly unnecessary wooden menu that they stand on the table for reasons unknown to me.

Being seasoned professionals at this restaurant, to the surprise of our server we placed our orders fairly quickly, and waited for the food. Despite being filled to capacity at peak Sunday night dining time, our food came out surprisingly quickly. One again the Japanese restaurant ethos of get in – eat – pay – leave works in our favour.

The food was as magnificent as I remember. I can’t help thinking that this restaurant chain would do extremely well in Australia, or pretty much anywhere else it expanded to. A simple dish of “hamburger steak” patties, which is just hamburger patties without any of the usual hamburger accompaniments, with toppings and a side of rice and a small salad. It is difficult to describe why this is so fantastic, and I’m not sure how they season their meat to make it so flavourful, but somehow it is just perfect.

While Veronica walked Isabelle and Angela back to the apartment, Charlotte and I diverted through the side streets of Kyoto around the rivers and canals to get photos of the blooming cherry blossoms, before stopping past the convenience stores for morning coffee milk and breakfast stuffs.

Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow, so it will probably be a quiet day exploring Kyoto, which is definitely not a bad thing.