Where have I been the past couple of days… you may be wondering since my blogging has ebbed. Or maybe you were not wondering, which I am ok with!

Thursday and Friday – Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea. Glad to have done it, but cross it off the list! Tokyo Disneyland bears a very strong resemblance to its U.S. predecessors, but much larger. The Sea on the other hand is hard to describe. Vast. No paper maps. Hard to navigate via just an app with shaky connections. Crowded. Long lines for flavored popcorn: curry popcorn, black pepper popcorn, shrimp and garlic, beef, chocolate… you get the picture. The beef popcorn bucket was particularly in demand (as judged by length of line since none of these were sampled by me!).

On Saturday we left Francie to begin her journey home (only one week of vacation) via Hakone. We went to Tokyo Station to catch the bullet train to Osaka! Upon arrival we were whisked straight to a Sumo wrestling tournament which was interesting and fun. Sumo is the national sport of Japan (nope, it’s not baseball).

Jet lag continues to plague (me at least) and I’m usually literally nodding off by 6 pm so we opted for dinner at our hotel – the Intercontinental – before calling it an early night.

Yesterday, Sunday, March 23, we started the day on a boat tour to see the magnificent cherry blossoms, but …no, we are too early. There are a few trees blooming, but not the rows and rows we had hoped to see. The boat tour was near the third incarnation of the Osaka Castle. Very impressive but crowded on a warm weekend day.

For lunch we went to Dotonbori Street, the symbolic business and shopping district of Osaka with its many 3-dimensional signs. We enjoyed noodles, pancakes topped with egg grilled on a table hibachi grill. Mary sampled melon bread sandwich with green tea ice cream (desert). Squid balls were also on the menu for some!

After a walking tour of Dotonbori, we went to the Umeda Sky Building Observatory. Akin to Chicago’s Sears Tower (formerly called), it offered great views of the city in a mixed use complex that is meant to resemble a space ship landing on top of the building.

We grabbed our first sit-down sushi dinner in the adjacent mall which was delicious.

Today we drive to Kyoto first thing for a full day of shrines and temples and a visit to Ninenzaka/Sannenzaka tea shops and shopping.

By the way, Francie has landed in Washington DC! Nearly home. It’s her Sunday night, and Monday morning here!