One Last Hurrah in Mainland Japan: Osaka and Nara

My dear friend and former mission companion Sarah finally broke free from her European traveling habits and came to Asia! She really wanted to see mainland as well, so my plan was to meet her there. I knew it would kind of be a go go go trip and honestly, I was anxious to do it alone with Baby J. I just hate having to lug everything all over the place and have a baby in tow. I get exhausted. Anyway, turns out Victor got back from Korea just a few days before so he bought a ticket and came and joined us! So, since our hotels were already booked and they were teeny rooms, poor Victor slept on the floor the whole time and J slept in the bathtub. Not the best accommodations but we had fun.

We started our trip in Osaka and visited the town of Nara, which was an old capitol of Japan. Nara was cool, but not as cool as I was expecting. The main attractions there are the great Buddha and all the town's wild deer.

 We spent the evening at Osaka Castle and then over in the Dotonbori area of Osaka and it was so fun! Tons of restaurants with huge food items/animals. It was lots of fun. Gives you such a fun taste of Japan.

 My favorite ginormous item was the gyoza, of course.

I also loved the candy store that sold every type of ramune imaginable. Ramune is Japanese soda you open by dislodging a marble instead of a lid. I love it.

 So, that was Osaka. Up next on the itinerary was to hop on the Shinkansen (bullet train) down to Hiroshima. And on that note, I will just say that I wish I could just travel by shinkansen for every bit of traveling I do. It's so comfy, relaxing, quiet, roomy, etc. Plus you travel 250 miles in just two hours. Awesome.