Back to Osaka

On our last day in Tokyo we went we went looking for a particular Izakaya that I'd seen recommended. It was a perfect lesson in the strange way Japanese addresses are constructed. We only had the address which I'd quickly jotted down in very bad Japanese and we didn't have a chance to find a map on the internet in the hotel thanks to its expense. Wikipedia gives a fuller explanation but suffice it to say that it's more or less described using smaller and smaller boxes, starting from the Prefecture name down. Street names are rarely used and you're lucky if you have a building number. We had a small Shibuya area tourist map and the address, trying to use landmarks like department stores and train stations to find our way. It was freezing cold and after about 20 minutes we were ready to completely give up when we amazingly stumbled upon the basement entrance down one of a million side streets, under a million neon signs, all with guys outside holding menus. The place was pretty cool, even though most of the staff looked like they were young enough to still be in school. And they even gave us a free souvenir when we left. The next day we got the Shinkansen to Osaka and were to pass by Mt. Fuji during a clear winter afternoon. We got a great view from the train. Osaka was almost how I remembered it - except a whole load of buildings had been torn down and rebuilt, perhaps twice.