A tale of 2 cities

For my second full day I thought I had better make use of my rail pass and get out and about a bit. First stop was Osaka - 25 minutes down the line from Kyoto. Main target was Osaka Castle, mainly rebuilt but still am impressive site. Some of the rocks that made up the boundary walls were so large it was remarkable how then got there hundreds of years ago.

Then went to the Umeda Sky Building - another tower. This one was a fairly modern building which had a circular observatory placed on top of 2 towers. The lift up was also surrounded by glass, and was a little scary! Super views from the top though, particularly as you could go outside rather than taking pictures through glass. the only strange note was caused by a display of tall buildings inside, which referred to the Twin Towers in New York in the present tense...

Next caught a train further along the line to Kobe. Kobe is a big port town, so I headed down to the harbour. Here I went round a museum which combined the maritime museum with a Kawasaki museum - all a bit random but some occasional good points. Main reason I went there was that it was only a few Yen in addition to going up the Kobe Port Tower (yes, another one!). Went up here at sunset, so I was able to see the transition from day to night in the town.

Time for a random dinner, before getting a packed train back to Kyoto. Saw a train at Kobe station which was actually running late!