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Bit of a sad day its the day we get on the big Jestar flying machine and head towards home. Time for a few last Japanese beers waste the remainin yen in our pockets and visit a really good transport museum where there was plenty of rail memorbilia to soak in including Japans’ first bullet train which was pretty impressive dating back to 1959. 
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We are a bit short on photos today- probably because we have walked every inch of this great city over the last week and just about buggered- one day to go..so better make the most of the great curries, yakatori and refreshments. 
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Mount Rocco was a bloody big walk up a hill somewhere near Kobe. Someone who will remain nameless (not Rocky) said it was only a few minutes walk from the station…well 2 hours up a 45 degree hill in 30 degree and 80% humiditiy…might be classed as a few minutes up the road.. But I think not!. The beer really tasted good at the top- believe me, and the view from the top was pretty flash too. 
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We went to Nara today, its a bit over 30 mins from Osaka by train. The place is fairly small and a perfect daytrip with most of the attractions situated around Nara Park, home to some huge ancient temples and deer that roam about wherever they like. when Nara was a bit of a surprize, and is probably a better destination than Kyoto for looking at old temples and the like. It’s fairly compact and the temples are spectacular. The roaming deers are pretty cute too, just cant work out why the Japanese seem to eat anything if it comes from the sea including treats like jelly fish, squid and sea urchant but don’t eat these tasty grey mammals, and even the thought of it makes them sick. Haven’t they heard deer are tasty? 
on returning ot Osaka we checked out the area around the Tsutenkaku Tower of Osaka’s Shinsekai District. This district was meant to be a bit sleasy but we didn’t see any evidence of it, all pretty good to us. The district is the traditional home of the Octopus Ball, Osaka’s favorite dish.
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Kobe is about a bit of half an hours train ride from Osaka and it was a great place to escape the madness of Osaka. The waterfront area is probably the most scenic, with plenty of attractions to see and do. We saw a great mascot who was spruking Kobe’s biggest tourist attraction the Kobe Tower. The city was hit by a pretty nasty earthquake during the 90’s which destroyed much of the city killing thousands, and they have a very intersting piece of the harbour which has been left to show the damage. Since then the city has been rebuilt and gone from strenght to strenght. The city has some pretty good sites expecially around their harbor. A few train stations down from the city centre we saw the 18 metre high metal robot Gigantor which was the day’s highlight. He was massive and was built as an arts project to attract people to the nearby shopping centre – it sure worked for us and the hundreds taking photos of him in the rain. 
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Today we did a bit of exploring around Den Den town the electronics distict before heading to a great street market which had plenty of slimy and deadly puffer fish on sale. These fish the Fugi have poisonous organs and can paralyze you in seconds so you cant breath.. Why would you eat them, if the uglyness isn’t enough the fear of death should end any thought. They were selling for about 40 bucks each and they have to be killed and filleted by licenced fish gutters before you can take them home and cook them up. Haven’t they heard cows are tasty and less deadly? 
We spent the evening back around the canals of Dotonbori, for some very tasty food and a few refreshments. The neons of Dotonbori are spectacular and there were tens of thousands out for some entertainment along the narrow strip.
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We took in two of Osaka’s best landmarks today, starting with the incredible Sky Garden Tower. This massive structure had a very scary escalator ride virtually hanging in air to the top of the tower. The view was pretty flash at the top with 360 degree vistas of the entire greater Osaka. The afternoon saw a visit to the Osaka Castle, This like all the other castles we visited was a recreation of the original, it had been burnt down a few times and bombed over the years. It made some great photos and the stand out the front had some very tasty chickeny things on a stick which were washed down with a few very refereshing cans of beer bought from a vending machine. 
Before hitting the city’s bars for the evening we called into the museum of housing and living which took more time to find than enjoy. They had a few interesting displays but the Freshness Burger outlet a few doors down was more enjoyable.
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Temples, Temples and you guessed it even more temples. Just when you thought you had seen the most spectacular there was another even grander just up the road. Being autumn the gardens were beautiful with red and orange leaves on the Japanese maples. 
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We headed down to the waterfront district today to the huge Universal city walk. It was a pretty close copy of Universal Stuido’s in California, but the highlight of the complex was the octopus balls museum. Here you could get everything octopus balls, from piping hot ones, to tshirts, soft toys and even frozen ones to take home. Strangely we didnt take up the offer and try what is Osaka’s favorite dish. 
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Our last day in Nagoya and the morning was spent at one of Toyota’s museums. This very interesting complex was built on the site of one of their textile factories. Toyota originally made mill machinery before becoming the world’s biggest car company. They had some very impressive displays including real vehicle manufacturing facilities. 
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Today we went out to the old Expo 2005 site. It was so different to how it looked when we visited during the expo. Very little remained. Today it is a huge parkland and has a indoor swimming pool and a few other leisure activities. The afternoon saw us visit the spectacular Nagoya castle- check out the photo of the girl and the dog we took there, and see if you can work out whats going on…we had no idea—and I think she mightn’t either. Weird! 
One of the pictures here shows a lexus in a showroom.. These luxury car dealerships are found in some of the luxury shopping centres. This one the cars looked like jewels and the counter staff and roaming salesmen all make a point of coming over to you and greeting you with a bow, very polite and very glitzy. The big golden fish which you will see on the second page of photos is the Golden Carp, he is Nagoya’s mascot and was once made of gold and mounted on the castle. But there were a few shifty guys who worked for the osaka coucil who knocked him off one night and now is just a replica.
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Today we travel by bullet train from Yokohama to Nagoya it only took about 2 hours reaching speeds inexcess of 300 km. Seeing Mount Fuji was one of the highlights of the trip. The afternoon saw us start to explore this city and we certainly found some fun. When we visited in 2005 for Expo we didn’t really have much time to find the real Nagoya but this time we did. Being Sunday there were a few great street markets which lots of activity and the beer underneath the Nagoya tower was a delicous way to spend the late afternoon watching the lights come on. The last few photos you will see are from the Nagoya JR Railway Station- it was the most elaborate thing we have ever seen. This huge led, neon and snake light montage which would have been five stories high and 20 metres long deplicting the 4 seasons. It was part of their Christmas decorations. 
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