DAY 29 - A STOPOVER IN DUBAI - WEDNESDAY 25 MAY

The Emirates Osaka->London flights gave us the choice of stopping off for 5 hours in Dubai airport or else having the best part of a day (land early morning, take off again 2am); so we'd decided have a whole day's layover in Dubai and booked an airport hotel (turns out there's a Premier Inn of all things, complete with airport shuttle bus). 

After landing with the dawn (28° at 5am!) and dropping off some bags at the P.I.,

we headed into the city, safe in the knowledge that we had as much of the day as we liked to look around and then could grab a few hours' shut-eye once we started to flag after a few hot hours of pounding the pavements.

The Jumeirah Grand Mosque (apparently the most photographed on Dubai) 

is open to non-Muslims as part of a "Open doors, open minds" programme.  As well as information about the building and about Dubai itself, it involves an interesting talk about Islamby a woman volunteer.

As well as a basic explanation of the theory and practice of the faith which felt rather like being back in the schoolroom, she took no-holds-barred questions about dress, deportment, expectations of women (interestingly, although she herself was conventionally dressed, she claimed that her teenaged daughter chooses not to cover her hair or wear the traditional black cloak - "abaya").  

As a huge plus, a feast of tea and buns, in the form of mini doughnuts with date syrup, and pancakes with curd cheese was served in a waiting room...

We dragged ourselves away from the buns and headed to the modestly-sized metro

to the 829.8m Burj Khalifa, which took over from Taipei 101 in 2009 as the tallest building in the world.  

Sadly, our optimism proved ill founded as the receptionist brightly told us that access to the observation deck tickets (AED125/£24pp) was sold out but we could go to the top for AED500 each... that's a grand total of £187!  Not so tempting, especially as it was a fairly hazy day; we declined and moved on to glimpse the Burj al Arab hotel from the tube (emphasising how bad the visibility probably was from the tower), 

and visited the Deira area of old Dubai and its fort

and following up those donuts with a slap up late-afternoon spread of mutabal and hummus, and chicken wraps.

Everything in Dubai seems enormously spread out (just walking to the Burj Khalifa from the tube which bears its name took 20 minutes - on a moving walkway too!) and, as you'd expect, primary focus on shopping and consumption.  I will say for it that it has a pleasing range of interesting modern architecture 

but we weren't surprised that a little over 12 hours in town proved more than enough and the shopping malls - glityzy as they are - were not for us

we were glad to see the Premier Inn shuttle bus for a shower and 5 hours' snooze before the homeward leg.  Into LHR at dawn on Thursday morning.

DAY 28 - OSAKA - TUESDAY 24 MAY

A last day in Japan was a chance to explore Osaka a little

Proud of their traditional heritge as the pavemwent suggests,but also boasting some interesting new styles with the Umeda Sky Building, two 40-story towers connecting at their two top floors, with bridges and an escalator crossing the atrium-like central space.

 

 
as well as the older neo-renaissance Central Public Hall [1916-8
 

Across a rather smaller bridge is a garden

and a lunch spot in the shade for our last takeaway sushi

Some less realistic but still attractive flowers

and a last word yo the funky Japanese sense of humour

DAY 27 - HIMEJI-JO - MONDAY 23 MAY

World Heritage Himeji Castle (Himeji-jō) - nicknamed the White Egret for its white elegance - is widely considered Japan's most spectacular castle for its imposing size and beauty and complex grounds.  It lies at a strategic point along the western approach to the former capital, Kyoto, and, unlike most other Japanese castles, was never destroyed by war, earthquake or fire; 1400s fortifications were enlarged over the centuries by various ruling clans.  The complex as it survives today was completed in 1609: over eighty buildings spread across multiple baileys, connected by a series of gates and winding (uphill!) paths.

It absolutely poured down last time we visited, so we were cheered to see the blue sky.

Entering via the Otemon Gate into the third bailey took us to the main keep;  the walled paths and multiple gates were built to slow down attacking forces, and the steep narrow staircases certainly did the same for us!

  

Each level gets progressively smaller as you ascend. The floors are generally unfurnished and display just a few multilingual signs explaining architectural features such as portholes, rock chutes and concealed areas. From the top floor, we peered out in all directions, down over the castle roofs, at the maze-like defenses below and out across the city, including admiring up-closes view of the fish-shaped roof ornaments (believed to protect from fire).

 
And, back at our hotel room, we turned on the TV for the first time and settled down for some sake with the  grand final...

By George, those chaps move fast