Another early start, another train, this time heading for Japan's third largest city, Osaka. We broke the journey for a couple of hours at Himeji, to visit the castle (claimed to be the best in Japan) and gardens. Also known as the White Heron Castle due to its white appearance and is very imposing. Having completed our touristic duty and being duly impressed we moved onto Osaka and lodged ourselves in a hostel in the Namba district (once again aided by "the blue dot") - A good choice as it turned out. We arrived in to Osaka during rush hour, not a good time when trying to work out the underground whilst being squashed amongst thousands of commuters.

Shamefully, we squandered our three days in Osaka by being total tourists and spending a day at Universal studios, flying through Hogwarts on broomsticks in the Harry Potter world and battling with zombies, as the light faded on Universal City - All surprisingly enjoyable, albeit somewhat childish.

The second day was raining we went to the aquarium, which was reputed to be the largest in Japan or maybe even Asia. Guess what everyone else decided to do on a rainy day ….. you guessed it, we were not alone - It was thronged and although as aquariums go, it was very good but there is only so much time one can watch fish swimming around an extremely large bowl.

Namba was an exciting place to go out at night- We went to our first sushi restaurant here, complete with carousel - It was like a foody version of the "generation game" but with no cuddly toys, only raw fish (no chips). The 400-year-old canal was illuminated by huge neon signs, the most famous being the "Glico Man" who bizarrely is regarded as the symbol of Osaka. Beneath the glitzy glow of neon, thousands of people mingle in the bars and restaurants creating the buzzing vibrant night-life that is Osaka.

On our last night we decided to be sensible, as a concession to our budget, we bought food and alcohol from the 7/11, to eat and drink at the hostel, ready for an early night and a fresh start in the morning and enjoyed a pleasant evening "in" socialising with our multi-national fellow hostellers.