travelling allrite

Tiny white flecks dancing through the air, up, down, all around. They land on our jacket, our hair, then disappear. Snow! We laugh with delight at this wonderful sight. When I gazed out of the hotel room this morning was greeted by a view across the South of Osaka. The sky was blue with scattered grey clouds, the source of this snow. Not a depressingly grey winter day, not at all! We returned to a favourite for breakfast, the Muu Muu Diner in the Mio building above Tennōji station. "Hawaiian" pancakes with egg, bacon and salad. Did a little shopping, for the purpose of the day was to equip B and Alex with winter gear. Then we crossed back to our hotel to wait for Machiko, a local teacher at an English language school who had stayed with us in Australia previously. What we didn't realise is that there are two Miyako hotels in Tennōji. Ours and the much posher Marriott Osaka Miyako next door which has a level 19. Ours doesn't go up that high! ...

When demanding to return to Japan Alex insisted on onsens. The Kansai area is not particularly well known for its onsens, but I did find that one of Japan's most ancient onsens does lie close by at Arima, just over the mountains from Kobe and that it has retained a reputation as a well preserved town, as opposed to some overdeveloped concrete onsen resorts. Even better was that we could get there via a cable car (funicular) and ropeway (what we often call a cable car). Back to Umeda to catch the Hankyu train towards Kobe, stopping at Rokko station. From Rokko station we had to ask where to find bus 16 to the cable car. The goes up the mountains behind Kobe and past Kobe University. Note that they don't seem to accept the Kansai Thru Pass, though the driver just waved us through. Unfortunately, the cable car was closed due to a landslide, so we were directed to catch a small bus. The bus wound itself up Mount Rokko, almost a kilometre high and due to its proximi...