O sake, Osaka!

This is my third day in Osaka. I\m staying in a dodgy downtown area, although the hotel is clean and comfy. My room is about the size of an office cubicle farm with tatami mats and futon. Simple but very noice. It has a fridge so have stuffed it full of cheap food from a nearby 100yen shop: noodles, noodles, noodles, chocolate digestive biscuits, fruit, donuts and coffee in a soda can. When I first emerged from the subway, I was confronted by a few leering men and a man urinating onto a main traffic intersection. The whiff and humidity were reminiscent of India, minus the cows, general pollution and poverty.

The area around my hotel is surrounded by labyrinthine alleyways and arcades, decorated with fake pink blossoms and packed with heaving shoppers and cyclists. Imagine shoppers in the Strand Arcade in Sydney whizzing up and down on bikes and parking their bikes out the front of shops - yep, this happens here. Many of the bikes are very retro, 50s style and look very pretty parked outside the flapping curtained doorways of noodleshops and bars. I stole into a quiet bar where I snacked on agedashi tofu and watched the world go by ...

Today I'll be taking a stroll in Tennoji Park and then perhaps off to Spa World which features water slides, Asian and European-style spas.

Then tomorrow I;m off to Kyoto for a week where I'll endeavor to post in more detail.

Jamata!