Day 8 allowed us to sleep in until around 8am. The plan for today was to ride the Hello Kitty Shinkansen train a couple stops down to Himeji, and then get right back on a train headed towards Nara. There was a handful of pokemon lids in the region outside of Nara called Ikaruga that we could visit in one swoop, including another legendary pokemon's lid (Entei). Before the trip we weren't actually sure if we wanted to do Himeji or Nara more, as we knew we wouldn't have time for both, so decided on the novelty factor of Nara. After Nara, we would run back up to Kyoto for a lid that we missed, and then head down to Dotonbori for the night.

It started with another round of train transfers - from our hotel, a short walk to Fukushima Station to connect to Osaka station to catch a Thunderbird train to Shin-Osaka station, where we would catch the Hello Kitty Train which is really just part of the normal Kodama train service that runs between Osaka and Fukuoka. It has a limited schedule and would not work for us the other way around on our way back from Fukuoka, so this was really our only opportunity if we wanted to get on it.

I wasn't sure how big of a deal this would be or not, but it did feel a little bit different waiting for the train to arrive - you could tell that there were some people who were doing what we did. The train pulled up a bit early, however we could not board until it was fully catered.


Shiny



We had reserved green car seats in advance, however most of the train is actually just a "normal" train. Only the front two cars are themed - and the front car is a store. The second train has purple and themed seats, but you cannot reserve them in advance, so it's first come first serve. We boarded towards the front and had no problem getting seats, with this being a Sunday morning it wasn't too busy.




Lots of people were taking pictures up front, and we were certainly no exception. I had also taken robin and chedar to the front to get a picture next to the date sign that all these speciality trains have, and shop attendants asked for a photo with the bears as well:






It was less than 30 minutes down to Himeji, we really just wanted a chance to ride on it, check out the store and get the train stamps. We did that at Himeji station as well and then took a train immediately back to Osaka station, and then onto the JR line towards nara, getting off at Horyuji. The views along the ride were pretty nice too.

Waiving goodbye to the Hello Kitty Train

Green Class service back to Osaka

Approaching Osaka

I think this was also right before Osaka




The mascot of the Ikaruga region is Pago-Chan, the persimmon! This was at Horyu-ji station.

Between the Horyuji JR station and the Horyu-ji Visitor center, there were 5 manhole covers, and the walk was pretty straightforward at only ~1.5 km. We made it to the visitor center right as it started pouring, which didn't make for the best photo opp with one of the cooler lids on this trip:

Entei

The other issue is that we needed to get on a bus to Nara while it was pouring, but thankfully the rain let up shortly after. Once on the bus, it was about a 45 minute ride to Nara. We opted for the bus since we didn't want to walk back to the JR station, and the fact that the Nara JR station is a small ways away from where the deer are in Nara anyways.

The bus ride was comfortable enough as we zig-zagged towards Nara Park. Right before our bus stop, I was surprised again to see another Starbucks in an area such as Nara - it just seemed a little out of place (not that I mind though).

After getting off the bus, our next task was to find where we could buy the snacks for the deer. Emily felt bad that the deer were approaching her without having any of the snacks. We found a shop in the south eastern corner of the park that was selling something like 10 treats for 200 yen, so it was pretty cheap. We spent an hour or so walking around and feeding various deer.




After the novelty ran it's course, we started heading back towards the JR station. Emily wanted to stop at a fabric store, which we managed to find tucked away in a corner - and then we continued on towards the Train Station.

Directly next to the Nara JR station is also a visitor center (with a starbucks, of course!) - where we got some more stamps before catching a JR train all the way back to Kyoto.


Anywhere a data was posted like this is an automatic photo opp.


There was a part of Kyoto we didn't get to check yesterday - the eastern portion called Otsu - that had one of the manhole covers we really wanted to see. We connected to a local JR line at Kyoto and got off at Otsu, which is located near the southern end of Biwa Lake.

The views as the sun were setting were nice here as well:

Between Nara and Kyoto



We had a 20 minute walk each way to Hamaotsunagisa Park to visit our last cover in this region:


You are NOT the lid! But fun to stumble upon.



Red and Blue Gyrados.

It was around 7pm or so and we were both starting to get really hungry (and tired from all the walking), but we found enough strength to get back to our hotel in Osaka, freshen up, and then head down to Dotonbori. At the Otsu train station, there was also a giant wall showing where the 35th parallel crosses, which was kind of cool to see. As a reference point, it listed Memphis, TN also on the imaginary line:


Otsu and Memphis, one in the same


It's not hard to get to from our hotel, but there's also no direct trains. We took the JR train to Osaka station, then connected to the subway to Namba, located just a short walk away. Dotonbori was hopping with people and music, which helped us find some extra energy to power through for a couple more hours. Emily was most looking forward to trying out Takoyaki, which she grabbed at one of the first stands we saw.






We enjoyed walking around and taking in all the sights and sounds, and ended the evening at Round1 Arcade, where we aimlessly wandered for almost 2 hours.


With fatigue kicking in for a second time, and knowing that we had another long day ahead of us tomorrow, we took the subway back to Osaka and then the JR loop line back to Fukushima and finished up with the short walk back. We were also able to do laundry at our hotel, which was much needed at this point.

Tried the pong machine while having our free drinks at the Moxy however it didn't work very well.

Not to sound like a broken record, but tomorrow was going to be another very long day. The plan was to take a morning train up to Shin-Osaka station, followed by a Shinkansen trains to Fukuoka, and then connecting to the scenic Ibusuki no Tamatebako train, find all of the eevee manhole covers, and then train back to Fukuoka. The Ibusuki no Tamatebako was the train ride I was most looking forward to for the entire trip.