I am writing this blog Saturday morning sitting on the couch in Fergs lovely apt. The sun is shining in on my face and the birds are chirping outside. On with the blog.... As I really did not have any plans for the day other than getting to Osaka by early evening I took my time getting up and ready for the day. I went down the street and got a coffee then headed over to the river and sat by the river next to the A Bomb Dome. I sat there for about half an hour, mostly people watching which is easy to do here as there are so many of them. I decided I best get on my way so I went back to my hotel and got my luggage. I walked down to the tram station and hopped on a tram to the train station. I ended up getting on in the middle of the tram and was trying to figure out where to pay. Finally after riding the tram for a bit feeling like at any moment I was going to get in trouble for riding and not paying I read a sign that said to pay when you are getting off. By this time the tram had emptied out a bit and I was watching people pay with coin at the front just like we would here but just when getting off. I am not the brightest sometimes!! I have had a few moments of just going with the flow, not sure what I am paying for or what I am getting myself in to but so far everything has been good. I made my way to Osaka by bullet train which I ended up snoozing through most of it as the movement of this particular train was making me a bit nauseous. I have been getting on trains kind of last minute which is not great for getting reserved seats so I had to do the rush for a seat on this train. I made it to Osaka early afternoon and was not to meet Ferg until 630 so I stored my luggage and found lunch. Sushi train it was, I find the amount of restaurants over whelming. After sushi I headed over to the castle. I watched a bit of a local baseball game outside the castle before heading in. I made my way up the the main tower of the castle and climbed up to the 8th floor. The view from the top was amazing. You could walk all the way around outside so you could see all around Osaka. I made way back to the Osaka Station which is a beautiful station and did some exploring around the area. I found myself in an electronics store and talk about sensory overload!! I couldn't think there was so much going on! I did not stick around long. There is a skating rink just outside the train station. It has some sort of synthetic ice, was neat to see but very out of place. Ferg arrived earlier than expected and we headed out to find dinner. We went to a place called The Elephant Cafe which was a south East Asian place and we had very delicious meal. We went up to the top of the train station for some great views. Everything is decorated for Christmas now. We then picked up my luggage and made our way back to Fergs place in Hirakata. It was late, we had some tea and headed to bed early ish. He has a lovely apartment with green space right outside and is tucked away from the city in the middle of the city. Just what I needed after so much city this past few weeks!