Osaka, Japan : Part 1 🇯🇵

Getting the last use of our Hakone free-passes, we made the short walk to Hakone-Yumoto station for the train back to Odawara. It was at this point B that we picked up our tickets for the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka.

They are on the pricey side, with one ticket costing between 70 and 90 pounds depending on destination, but they are the fastest and most iconic way to get around Japan. We wouldn’t be getting the Shinkansen as much as other travellers we’d met along the way, so it felt especially momentous.

Travelling at 220 miles an hour, these feats of Japanese engineering are something to be applauded. Highly punctual and with signs/announcements in English too, it’s an incredibly relaxing experience.

The train guards/ ticket officers also perform a respectful bow before entering and exiting each carriage, reaffirming my thoughts on how polite the Japanese culture is. It was a warming sight to witness.

Arriving at Shin-Osaka, the city’s dedicated bullet train stop, we hopped on the metro and moved on through to our hotel. Situated on the outskirts of Osaka’s food district, it quickly became clear Steph had nailed another location.

One much needed shower later, it was far hotter in Osaka than in the mountains of Hakone, and we were off out again. Osaka was to be different, as we would be seeing some of the sights as part of a bigger group. Steph’s brother and some of his friends had been travelling around Japan for the last 2 and a half weeks, they had coordinated a place to meet up and Osaka it was. Even more bizarrely just around the corner from each other.

They took us to a relatively cheap build your own curry house before hitting up a billiards bar across town. Unlimited pool for three hours at around 12 pounds each and cheap drinks, there were worse ways to start our stay in Japan’s second city. I blamed my poor form with the cue on rustiness, after all it had been a while.