Penultimate Party Weekend

This weekend, Vivian and I took a trip to our favourite places in Kansai, Osaka and Kyoto. It was the last trip we are going to take together (for a while at least...I'll be back to see you in Tokyo, Vivian.) so we were determined to make it a trip to remember. And we did. We really did....






We get embarrassed to arrive in the big cities in this bus. 'Sanuki Express' emblazoned across the front lets everybody know we are country folk leaving the rice fields for the weekend...

First stop - Osaka




My favourite Vivian and Isabel Osaka memories - J-boys, Osaka nightclubs, Aki and Bruce on the Dotombori, staying at the cutesy KOMO hostel, running away from a French man, bananas on escalators, day trip to Nara, trying on fluffy heels in the low budget shoe shop,encountering fellow Kagawa weekend trippers ('that's Kagawa'), Umeda station meltdowns, watching our friends jump into rubbish heaps fresh from the kitchens of McDonalds (urgh),waiting for return buses to Kagawa.

My final weekend in Osaka was amazing...as our Osaka weekends always are.

We spent ages picking up clothes shaped treasures in Namba before meeting the Mikes...



(no, this one is better;)



We ate Mexican food and mango margueritas, and then there was dancing...









(I love this picture of Vivian!)

...and finally, some karaoke...






We arrived back at our hostel very early the next morning. The hostel was in a bad part of town and wasn't a very pleasant stay. It was also not very pleasant being woken up after two hours sleep and being told we had fifteen minutes to check out.
We wandered around Namba in a sleepy daze, attempted some more shopping (it was half hearted) before giving up and hopping on the train to...



My favourite Vivian and Isabel Kyoto memories: late night green tea frappucino and cake parties down by the river, walks through Ponto cho, befriending guest catchers, combini snacks at 3am, green tea everything, KitKat photoshoots, staying up all night, the lovely 'this is the button to increment and decrement the AC' owner of our hostel, meeting Mr. and Mrs. Pomme and eating cake at their lovely cafe.

We were so exhausted by the time we got to Kyoto. Late afternoon showers and cat naps at our lovely hostel felt like heaven after the dump we had stayed at the previous night. We even got room service from Mr. Increment Decrement :-)



Later that evening, we headed out for a beautiful meal in Gion, and took pictures in the most beautiful parts of the city.











It was the perfect weekend. I don't want this to end.

xo