Today started out the day in typical Toyoko Inn fashion, which is to head down to the ground floor to rub elbows with businessmen in the small lobby area to eat a Toyoko Inn breakfast.

On today's breakfast menu was croissants, bread rolls, sausages, tinned spaghetti (which is about as un-Japanese and I can imagine), corn soup and salad (read: lettuce) with dressing (read:water), along with coffee and juice served in teeny tiny cups not much bigger than shot glasses, I presume to prevent you drinking too much of it. Still, it is all included in the cost of the room, so I can't complain too much.

Today has been designated as a fairly quiet day to catch up after the madness of yesterday, so we have nothing major planned.

After breakfast we decided to head out and explore the area around Namba, which by now is fairly familiar to us. Backtracking the way we came last night, we returned to Namba Parks, a large shopping arcade a few blocks from our hotel. We well and truly know by now that in general, the Japanese trading day doesn't begin until 11am. With this in mind we wandered through the deserted shops, until we found a Starbucks coffee shop.

Before the trip I was expecting freezing conditions, but it honestly cool, but not unpleasant. Even Veronica who is usually the first one to feel the cold has said that it isn't bad at all. I suspect that will change when we head to the mountains in a few weeks time, but for now the temperature is much better than I expected. I went out in just 2 t-shirts (one short sleeve, and one long sleeve over the top) and that was more than sufficient.

Starbucks had chairs and tables set up both inside and outside, and the outside was completely empty, while the inside was pretty much full. When we walked inside we realised why. Inside the store it was stiflingly hot, and the Japanese have a tendency to compensate for cold weather by superheating their shops, trains, taxis, etc. Last night's train from the airport was a good example. I would have thought they'd have developed a higher tolerance for cold than a bunch of Australian tourists, but what seems to pass as "comfortable" to a Japanese person in winter is inevitably too damn hot for us.

With Starbucks done, and the shops beginning to open up for the day as the clock passed 11am, we went for a walk through Namba Parks, and then out through the streets north towards Dotombori.

After an hour or so of walking and browsing of the various shops and displays set up around Namba, the weather started to look threatening, and since the girls were tired and we were planning on having a late night tonight we decided to head back past the hotel to a Coco Ichibanya curry restaurant just a few blocks from our hotel. As on our previous trips, the curry from this restaurant chain (which could be classed as Japanese "fast food") was exceptional. Very fast, and very cheap.

As we were sitting in the restaurant the clouds came over darker, so we hurriedly finished our meals and left to cross the road and walk the few blocks back to the hotel. Considering the very mild temperature, what happened next was very surprising. Snow! A few raindrops fell, which after a minute or so changed into either very large snowflakes, or very small, light floaty hailstones. Either way the girls had a great time, and again I got some weird looks as I was standing in the snow on Osaka's main street, in a t-shirt videoing and taking photos of the weather while the locals just hurried to get out of it.

After the brief snowstorm, or whatever it was, had passed we continued onto the hotel. Since it was going to be a late one, and body clocks were already screwed up by the 24 hour day yesterday, we returned to the rooms to give the girls a few hours sleep to be ready for tonight.

Once awake at about 4:30pm, and it already beginning to get dark outside we rugged up and headed out into the night at about 5pm. For the first time in the trip I got my jacket out of the suitcase, and I'm glad I did. In contrast to yesterday, and earlier today, it was cold. Not bitterly cold, but very very cool.

Back again to Namba Parks, since there is a concentration of Winter Illumination sites between Namba Parks and Dotombori, so we designated that as the area we were going to explore tonight.

When we arrived at Namba Parks, knowing where the main illumination areas were from earlier in the day, we went straight to the top floor via the glassed elevator in the centre court, and came out among a brightly lit world of neon, playing music in sync with the actions of the lights. We began descending Namba Parks on the outside pathway, which was lit with fantastic lighting displays all the way to street level, and best of all from the top floor to the bottom we saw maybe 10 people. We had the entire 8 floors of lighting displays to ourselves.

Once back on the streets, we headed north through Shinsaibashi shopping arcade, which was massively crowded already. It still amazes me how there can be so many people traveling in different directions and at different speeds, and cyclists weaving in and out of the crowd on the footpaths, and yet nobody bumped into anybody. I seriously didn't see one collision all night.

Before we realised it, we emerged at Dotombori and were greeted with even more people, more noise and much more neon. I love this place.

Dotombori with 3 kids on a fine and cool Friday night? Good idea!

Actually, I think Dotombori is one of the few places which should be experienced when it is crowded. It is part of what makes it so fantastic to visit. More restaurants than you can imagine, all kinds of weird, interesting or just plain bat-**** crazy people walking around, doing their best to be noticed or stand out among the crowds.


Spruikers outside of every shop, standing there freezing to death, loudly shouting at passers by to entice them to enter their establishment instead of the one next door.

Teenage girls, also probably freezing to death, wearing nothing but stockings, 8 inch high heels and a big fur coat to try to get as much attention as possible. From who, and for what end goal, I'm not entirely sure.

Groups of guys, mostly early 20s from my observation, dressed in their best leather jackets, sunglasses (yes, at night) and freshly slicked back hair, looking as cool as possible.

Groups of 8 or so older Japanese men, dressed in expensive suits, sunglasses and shining leather or crocodile skin shoes, with one obvious "main man" in the center of the group, swanning through the crowds like they own the city, while passers by get out of their way and avert their gaze, I assume out of respect or fear.

It is great fun to watch.

Heading to all of the usual places to get photos, we found ourselves on the famous Ebisu bridge in front of the Glico running man. One young Japanese guy standing nearby let us get some photos of the girls in front of the Glico sign, before he casually joined them in my photos, with a cheeky grin on his face. After getting a shot or two with him in the photo, he offered to do a family group shot of all of us together which was nice.

After taking a bunch of photos and spending a short time people watching on the bridge we decided that it was dinner time. The problem now wasn't finding where to eat. The problem was deciding which restaurant to eat at.

I've had to restaurants on my Japan holiday food food checklist which I wanted to try on our return. The first was Coco Ichibanya curry, which we had for lunch, and the other is Bikkuri Donkey. Bikkuri (which is Japanese for "surprise") Donkey is a bizarre American themed restaurant chain, with all kinds of interesting stuff on the walls, and this restaurant specialises in "hamburgers". I use quotes because the Japanese interpretation of hamburger varies greatly with what you might expect. The Bikkuri Donkey hamburgers consist of a hamburger patty, usually with rice and some kind of salad, with a variety of delicious toppings on the side/top/underneath.

5 massive meals and some side dishes, all for around $50, and we were all very, very full. My memories of this restaurant proved accurate, and it was a fantastic meal which is going to be difficult to top for the remainder of the trip.

Thoroughly full, and fairly exhausted we decided to make tracks towards the hotel. After some more wanderings through the neon, crowds, and along the canal we headed back via the main road south to the hotel.

Stopping briefly for photos at Namba Carnival mall, since we missed the illuminations there on our trek north, we returned to the hotel.