We spent most of our time based in Osaka and travelling from our Hotel there to the surrounding cities of Kyoto, Kobe and Nagoya. I used to live in Birmingham which is considered the second city in the UK to London, but Osaka the second city seemed twice the size of London !! We travelled on the bullet train from Tokyo which certainly lived up to it's name !!! The picture in the cafe is, reading left to right. Eriho,

This is the view from my room in Osaka. I love this place. Everything seems to go on at different levels !! And it's great to see people of all ages riding their bikes on the pavement - a lot safer than in London !!!

Big snowman in big city !!!

I have been in Japan for 5 days now and this is the first chance I've had to post. I was in Tokyo for 4 days and yesterday we moved to Osaka (the photo above shows just a small part of it !!!).
I have had quite bad jet lag and at one point I thought my body had forgotten how to sleep !
What can you say about Japan ? It makes New York look quiet and London a village ! It is intensely busy but everything is so thoroughly organised that it runs like clockwork. The people are really polite and gentle which is the best thing about it.