We arrived in Osaka, which is very close to Kyoto; in fact, it's only about 35 minutes from Himeji, and less than 15 minutes from Kyoto. The hard part, as we discovered, is that the Shinkansen doesn't take you to Osaka station, which is close to the city, it actually takes you to Shin-Osaka station ("new Osaka"), which is a short train ride north. I didn't discover this until we had made a reservation with the Hotel Il Monte, which is supposedly not too far out the east gate of Osaka station. We were walking back through the terminal looking for an exit and stopped to look at a station map. Something didn't sit right with me. The map didn't look right, and it sure as heck didn't have the exits I remembered from two years ago when I was here.
I figured out at that point that we were in a different station, so I went in to the tourist office near the map and asked. She gave me a GOOD city map, told me which train to ride (tracks 15 or 16), and drew on the map as to how to get there. Thank goodness! We took the JR Kyoto line (which as the name suggests, goes all the way to Kyoto) one long stop to Osaka station. When we got out, I was totally lost at first. The station is HUGE and is remarkably sprawled underground and above ground. It's linked almost directly into the subway and Hankyu rail lines, so it's almost hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. We walked in the general direction I wanted to go (east) and eventally came out the east end of the south exit. This area, fortunately, I finally recognized, and was able to get my bearings a bit. Still wasn't entirely certain, but the map was pretty good and she had pointed out something called HEP 5 on it. We walked between the Hankyu rail station and the Hankyu department store (directly out the east gate of the JR station) and as soon as we came upon it I realized what HEP 5 was. It was the place we had visited briefly last time, and I recognized it immediately. HEP 5 is a 9 story entertainment and shopping mall (HEP stands for Hankyu Entertainment Plaza) with a HUGE ferris wheel that goes through the top 3 floors and up into space above the building. Cyndy and I had ridden this thing last time; vertigo sufferers beware. We followed the map between HEP 5 and the building to the right of it which is on the opposite side from the train tracks and the ESTA-1 shopping mall underneath them. On the far end of this street we had to cross one little street and go underneath the elevated expressway to the hotel, which has a sign clearly visible at the top of it.
The front desk is on the third floor, and as it turns out, was about 3000 yen more than I thought it was going to be (about 13000). I couldn't quite understand her on the phone, but I thought she had quoted back the amount they said in the guide book. Nope.
We ended up in room 602, and despite the lovely cigarette odor (we promptly opened a window) the room was rather nice. The hotel was only opened in 1997 (cleared out an existing building and started over) so everything is pretty updated. The bathroom was bigger than usual, and they had this cool 250 station radio that you could control from next to the bed. It played from an overhead speaker. We sat around for a while, resting, then decided it was time to go out and see sights. I thought we should make a trip down to Dotombori, a huge gaudy shopping arcade with tons of neon lights and nifty signs.
We caught the Midosuji subway line down to Namba station, where we exited near the airport line and followed the bright lights out to the
Ebisu-Bashi shopping arcade, which runs perpendicular to Dotombori. The arcade was packed with people, and we had a little trouble walking through. After a few short blocks, we crossed a major street with an elevated expressway, then a few blocks more and we hit Dotombori. Right at this interesection is a foot bridge that leads over the canal. If you walk on this bridge, you'll see tons of neon lights, that 
cover an entire section of buildings. Also on the far end of the bridge is the 
Kirin Beer building (I think its a brew pub), which looks nifty and futuristic. We walked back to the main 
Dotombori arcade and headed to the right, towards the huge crab sign. The signs and attractions are really neat here; there are things like a huge 
dragon near a ramen shop and giant fugu. Fugu is a delicacy in Japan, particularly here, but I did not take my life into my hands and try some. :) I'm sure it would be safe, but t'ain't worth it. :)
At this point, Molly was really really tired. I led her back across the main road to the left of the area we were in (back past the
crab) and over to a neat boat-shaped restaurant. We turned around and tried to find the Hagen-Daas circus, somewhere the guide book claimed to be very cool. It was supposed to be on the north east side of the Ebisu-Bashi bridge, but we walked all the way around the block and could find only strip joints. :/ On the very corner by the Ebisu Bashi bridge was a Indian Restaurant, and since I had promised Molly Indian so long ago, and for being such a good girlfriend and being dragged around even though she was tired, I asked if she wanted to go and she agreed. After we saw the prices, however, we decided to hang it up and go back to the hotel and order pizza. ONE of the dishes there would feed us BOTH pizza.
We got a little lost getting out of the station after the long walk back to Namba and the subway ride back to Umeda station. Eventually we made it back to the hotel area. Molly has been searching for Lamune (her favorite drink) for a few days now. For some reason it's hard to find. Just down the alleyway next to the station (and past a sign playing Debbie Gibson music) a liquor store provided the big beer I was craving and some lychee chu-his. We had also gotten a Sprite and CC Lemon. Back in the hotel, I used the sign that was in the room to call up Domino's Pizza (yes, the chain you're thinking of) and ordered a margherita pizza and rotisserie chicken nuggets.
15 minutes, and I mean 15 minutes later, there was a knock at the door. Sure enough, it was the delivery guy. I paid him almost 3000 yen for a large pizza and chicken, but at that point did NOT care. It was delicious, and Molly and I polished it off in no time. We ended up watching a funny dramedy show about a girl who has had terrible luck with her love life and was telling her friends about it. She goes to Sapporo on a trip, too, which was relly funny. She got rejected at a love hotel early on, and later runs into the guy who rejected her in her clinic (she's a vet). She eventually bumps in to a boy (now a man) who was her childhood crush, which was the end of the episode or the movie, we werent sure what it was. It was really entertaining tho. We went to bed early, as we had a lot to do the next day.
--Hik