Another day in Japan, another day feeling like I was melting… Youth hostel had 4 girls in the room (including me) but the aircon was set to 26 in the room so I decided to seek shelter in a shopping mall in Osaka, and stare at the sheer amount of manga on offer…! After that, I headed back to Dotombori to get some delicious okonomiyaki! Okonomiyaki are Japanese pancakes, with lots of cabbage, some egg and batter, and fillings of your choice, topped with sauce and mayonnaise. The restaurant I went to was down a side street, called Okaru. When I got in there, the waiting area was already completely full of Japanese families waiting for a table, so I joined them! They had a large choice of ingredients to add into the okonomiyaki, so I chose pork and prawns for mine. This restaurant actually cooked it for you at your table on the hot plate. My waitress decorated it with hello kitty shaped mayonnaise ❤️

So filling and delicious! I then walked around Shibata and Umeda areas, and tried some delicious takoyaki (octopus in balls of batter), before jumping on the train and heading over to Kobe!

Caught the Hankyu railway to Kobe-Sannomiya as I hadn’t activated my 1 week JR pass at this point, so needed the cheapest option, and walked around Kobe. Really easy to get to from Osaka, and a nice city to walk around, a lot quieter than Osaka but good grief the heat was intense! I walked up the hill towards Shin-Kobe station in order to locate Nunobiki Falls which I had read were hidden somewhere behind the train station. I was considering taking the cable car but it was like over 1000JPY one way – no thanks! Found what I presume were old steps up there, but they were so bloody steep, glad I wasn’t going up those!

The walk wasn’t signposted particularly well, and I’m pretty sure I walked considerable farther than required, but after walking through Shin-Kobe station for the 2nd time, I finally spotted a sign for the waterfall! Lots of families having fun in the water at the bottom of the hill, and so I promptly began to trek up it.

Once I reached the top, it was worth it, it was so beautiful! It was still suffocating humid and hot, even in the shade, and there was no breeze at all up there, just the sound of hundreds of cicadas, but the falls themselves were wonderful.

I then made my way back down and jumped on the metro to get back to Sannomiya, before meeting with the divine, the wonderful, Katy! I hadn’t seen her since uni so it was so good to catch up with her and so kind of her to give up her evening to chill with me a bit :3 thank you katycake!