This morning's view from the bedroom
We have made the most of the hotel breakfasts while being here, however I have wondered what the Japanese people having breakfast with us have thought about our appetites Having discreetly watched their choices at this time, I've noticed that the women especially, place teaspoon size portions of the Japanese breakfast choices onto their plate and then slowly and delicately take tiny mouthfuls with their chopsticks, inbetween small sips of green tea. This is in contrast to the male members of our party, who having consumed the fresh fruit, cereal, yoghurts options then move onto plates piled high with omelettes, hash browns, tiny sausages and bacon before finally polishing off a plate of croissants, pastries and sometimes cakes! Trev's eyes soon light up when he spots this doughnut station and he makes sure he has enough room left for a few of them!
As it's our last day and at least one of us needs to walk off their breakfast, we decide to take a walk through the neighbourhood to a small garden attached to a Shinto shrine. It's a beautiful morning and being a Saturday, the streets are quiet and roads relatively free of traffic.
The shrine has a beautiful garden with several smaller shrines to individual deities within its grounds. A few people are coming to offer prayers at their favourite spots and the whole atmosphere is really calm and peaceful.
This lovely red acer is one of the first I've spotted, it has only just come into leaf
and there is still some late cherry blossom to be seen
I still,haven't worked out how this cherry blossom tree can have both white and pink flowers!
The walk back to the hotel gives me an opportunity to take a few random photos of things that have caught my attention while we have been in Japan.i
Everywhere has these ugly electricity wires festooning the streets, often right outside peoples' windows. We think they are a real eyesore, but I suppose it saves digging up the road when repairs are needed and we also wonder whether they cannot put them underground because of the risk of earthquakes.
These little cars were very prevalent in the smaller cities, they are no bigger than a standard Mini ((although they probably look normal size in the photo) and come in a range of miniature versions of larger SUV's and minibus type vehicles. We haven't seen as many of them here in Osaka, but I think they are quite cute.
We just had to wait ( a long time!) for the lights to change so we could walk diagonally across this zebra crossing! Maybe we have them like this in the UK, but I haven't seen one before and it's just another example of the orderliness and organised nature of everything in Japan. No one would dream of jumping the lights or walking outside of the markings either!
Back at our hote we have a little while to wait until it's time to board our coach for one last time and a trip to Osaka airport. We have good views of this ultra modern city as we journey away from the centre and are amazed by the extent of the industrial areas on the flat land next to the ocean, also the noticeable lack of grime or smoke around the buildings. Kansei airport is relatively new, built in 1994 on reclaimed land the first in the world to be built on land claimed from the sea, we reach it by crossing over the longest double decked truss bridge in the world.
Once again, the introduction of technology ( rather than an actual person) at the check in causes all sorts of delays and problems, but we eventually manage to print off all we need and stick our baggage identification on correctly.
Our wonderful tour of Japan is coming to an end, what a fantastic time we have had with so many fabulous memories of the country and its people.
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