Today was the first full day in Osaka and a day filled with sightseeing in the more rural side of Japan. After a Japanese style breakfast buffet at our hot spring hotel we had about a two and a half ride to our first destination, one of the three largest waterfalls in Japan. In my opinion, it was quite a small waterfall, but a nice sight nonetheless and it was interesting to see a little shrine up there and witness some Japanese traditions such as washing their hands and perhaps even drinking the water from a fountain before heading to put incense in the shrine. They also clap their hands after making their "wish" or saying a prayer in front of the shrine.

Next stop was an area of natural rock formations. These geological forms ranged from huge boulders to ones large and close enough for you to hop from one rock to another. This scenery was also facing the Pacific Ocean so it would have been very pleasant just to sit and look out into the horizon if we had more time.
Lunch was delicious as the meals have been so far and consisted of a hot pot broth where you cooked your raw meat, vegetables and noodles in it. Afterwards, we headed to the aquarium next door and looked at different fishes, sea creatures and even giant turtles! I have never seen such large turtles before (they must have been in their hundreds in human age) and there were also little baby ones swimming in a tank.

The underground cave we went to was the highlight of my day. When you arrive at the building, you take an elevator underground where the cave is. Upon exiting, you see a traditional painting along the wall with some headless traditional figures you can take photos with. With our tour guide leading the way, we went around the whole cave and looked out to bodies of water (possibly the Pacific Ocean again), the view, different natural structures and colours of the cave, as well as some fixtures and cultural home settings that were man made.

Our last view of the day was an area I would described as flattened hoodoos. The colours and textures of the rocks resembled that of hoodoos, but it was on the ground, some flat, some rough.

For dinner, we had a traditional Japanese dinner back at our hot spring hotel and it was one of largest table set dinners we ever seen, I couldn't finish everything, it was way too much. Even though I disliked wasting food, our diet has been too abundant these days and we realize we were starting to become pandas and that we had to stop eating in excess. To end off a wonderful day of touring, we enjoyed our last night of hot springs like the locals do.