Sadly Jess left us in Kobe and we headed to Osaka for two nights. Osaka is the third largest city in Japan and located on the port. We roamed the streets of Osaka trying to find the filming site of Blade Runner but was unsuccessful, we settled for visiting Osaka’s Floating “garden” and observation deck 173 meters up.  However, the term garden was used too loosely and was actually just a cement observation deck with no vegetation. Anyways, we had some good views of the city and some great free snack food!

The next day we took about an hour-long subway to Nara, Nara used to be the capital of Japan in the 7th century.  Nara Park is located in Downtown Nara and is a protected forest area with many temples developed by the Fujiwara family, who was also one of the first families to institute the buddhist practice throughout Japan.  One of the Emperors rode in a white deer with a very important message back in the day, therefore today there are thousands of deer roaming the park like dogs, which eager animal lovers feed with biscuits from their hands.

After a day in Nara and one more night in Osaka we flew to Seoul, South Korea via Peach Aviation, a local discount airline.  So far, Seoul is NOTHING like Japan, far more lively, aggressive and stimulating!