Just a quick update on today, as its nearing 12am and I have a big day in Nara tomorrow! I spent the evening having a hot shower, journal writing, personal updating and postcarding!

Today was in it's entirety, an unepected day of wonder. I managed to wake up at 10:20am, thinking the other packers would wake me up like yesterday but I was sound asleep and had very odd dreams - I didn't know whether to apologise to the others or not, no doubt I was sleep talking! I wasn't too excited about going to the Museum of Natural History but it is the main one in Japan and I didn't have much else lined up so I figured, why not? After I got on my second transfer to Nagai, I met a man who helped me read the ingredients on my drink bottle and chatted to me in broken English. He was an artist who had shown his work in Milan, the USA and in Cairns QLD! He spoke several language, and knew the alphabet of atleast 4 - Arabic, Mongolian, Hindi and Russian. He planned to go to Mongolia to teach Japanese - he was a fascinating man. After a bit of confusion at Nagai station, I realised this was a much smaller town that any I had been to and not even the train officers spoke any english - it was fantastic! It was a challenge getting to the museum but it turns out it is in the middle of an enormous botanical garden!

Walking into the building, I found an elaborate insect and taxidermy collection (how bittersweet) and spent a long time checking out all the insects, it was amazing! The museum itself was jaw dropping. There were life sized replicas of dinosaurs, mammoths, giant undulates - all kinds of things that got my gears a'grinding, it was heaven for me! The language they used, where it was written in english, was at second year biology level. I understood it, but the museum was definitely based on gaining intrigue and encouraging learning. I really loved it, well worth the long transit time. After that I wondered the gardens and came across a big pond. You couldn't see the water because it was entirely covered in lillies and pink blossoms but where the water did peep through, you could see white swans, colourful turtles and the biggest f***ing koi I have seen in my damn life, like these were 'River Monster' worthy. Some of them would have easily passed 1m in length, they were bloody huge. I wanted to pat one but something about socially unacceptable seemed to be the response.

I realised it was quite late so I made my way back to Osaka. I had my first meal of the day at 5pm (whoops) of delicious tempura veges then went to do some shopping but it was all very expensive, I think the 11 storey store was David Jones-esque BUT it had the pokemon centre in it, so it was worth it! It was super duper busy and I had to resist buying a lot of stuff I definitely didn't need but it was so awesome, inner child Rachael lost her s***. When I walked back outside, it was still quite light so I decided I'd wonder over and see what all the fuss was about with this Umeda Sky Building.

The building itself is made mostly of mirrors, so it reflects the sky perfectly - good start. Infront of it was a rock and water garden, even better start and the journey up 48 storeys was in a glass elevtor - best start! The view was pretty good, but then I got outside to the outdoor observatory and suddenly I had 360 degree views of the sunset over the ocean, mountains and city of Osaka. I ended up spending a couple of hours there just watching the colours of the sunset and the city light up. Absolutely breathtaking, 10/10 would recommend - can not describe the experience in mere words. After 2 attempts at leaving but having to go back out for another shot (I found out the ground had paint splatter like stars and UV lights to make the ground light up), I finally joined the line to head down. A man asked me if I was from Canada and then told me Australia lost in a footy game to Japan this morning 2-1, he was a bit odd but nice to speak to. I wondered through the backstreets with my ice cream to the hostel and settled in for tonight. I'm looking forward to sleep and Nara tomorrow. At this rate, I'm going to get jetlag from all the daytrips I'm making! I love it! Gah! Until tomorrow...

xo Rach