After spending a week weaving at the Saorinomori we traveled and stayed higher up in Osaka so we were closer to Kyoto and Nara. This part of Osaka was more central and full of beautiful temples, castles, shrines and exhibitions.

We went up the Umeda Sky Building, I’m not good with heights and there were escalators 173 metres high up! Once we were up the views were breathtaking and you could see all the city and the mountains.

We also visited Osaka Castle which was full of incredible craftsmanship, paintings, sculptures and costume. My favourite part was seeing all the small shrines around it, there was even one for alcoholics. Instead of flowers there were paper origami and wooden spoons with messages.

By chance we found an art exhibition about venice including paintings by Gustav Klimt (my favourite artist of all time) which we spent hours in. I also met up with a friend from Portsmouth who was living in Japan for a year. We went to another art gallery and found a beautiful sky garden.

Osaka also had the most delicious food, including matcha green tea ice cream.

Japan, Osaka