Tag 12 (January 1st, 2015)
Our stay in Japan was coming to an end. The return trip to Osaka with the Shinkansen was again perfectly organized.
In the afternoon, we visited the beautiful Osaka Castle. It stands on a high stone pedestal, which is supposed to protect the base, and was built almost completely out of wood, as it was usual for Japanese buildings in former times. During the restoration at the beginning of the 20th century, however, the destroyed castle was almost completely rebuilt from concrete, and since the restoration in 1997 it even has a lift.
When we got there, it started snowing. In the upcoming dusk the castle was illuminated and looked like “enchanted”.
Originally, we had planned to enjoy a nice farewell dinner in a typical restaurant, but we had to realize that in Japan everything was closed on New Year’s Day. Unfortunately they even did not offer dinner in our small hotel. But there are the Combini, some of them are open around the clock and so we got bentos, sandwiches and drinks and “picnicked” in the hotel lobby.
Day 13 (January 2nd, 2015)
Early in the morning we were picked up at the hotel and brought to the airport. There awaited us or rather our daughter a nice surprise: Some employees of the company, where our daughter had done her internship, had come to the airport to say goodbye. We were very touched.
Sayonara Japan.
Conclusion of our journey: Absolutely recommendable, without japanese speaking company veeeerrrrrryyyyy difficult. In any case, we would like to come back and look around for a longer time especially in rural areas around the Fuji-san.