If it had just gone non-stop, it probably would have been about 8 hours or less. But local trains stop at every station, and changing trains 6 times meant waiting for the next one to arrive, which took a while sometimes. I ended up getting the last train running to Wakayama on the Nankai Koya line that night, or else I'd have been stuck in Osaka!

Also, I was traveling with a ju-hachi kippu, and I didn't know if it covered the night bus to Osaka. And I got to see a lot of nice scenery and talk to people on the long slow trip, which was nice. I didn't mind it, it's not like I was only there for a short vacation and had to get there as fast as possible and not waste a day. I was living there for 2 years, and that was the leisurely journey home after a 9 day trip through eastern Japan. That was by far the cheapest way home, at just 2,200 yen...

Tokyo mostly because of the Harajuku district, and the fact that they have historical museums.

:confused: :confused: :confused:
That's definitely not true, there's much more history in Kyoto area, near Osaka!

i agree, i've never heard of tokyo being very historical... i usually only hear about kyoto being the cultural capital and historical capital!!!

There are loads of museums in Tokyo...

are they historical??? i know there are bear museams, nintendo museams and all that kinda "useless" museaum.... but are there many Proper museams?

...

Tokyo National Museum
Advertising Museum Tokyo
Mitsuo Aida Museum
Edo Tokyo Museum
O Art Museum
Hara Museum
Mori Art Museum
National Museum of Western Art
Paper Museum
Setagaya Art Museum
Tabacco and Salt Museum
Tokyo Fuji Art Museum
Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum
Tokyo Station Gallery
The University Art Museum, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
Mitaka Ghibli Museum
Nezu Institute of Fine Art
The Bunkamura Museum of Art
Bridgestone Museum of Art
Matsuoka Museum of Art
Science Museum Tokyo
National Science Museum
Transportation Museum
The Ueno Royal Museum
Sompo Japan Museum of Art

Oh and the awesome yashukan museum behind the yasukuni shrine about the kamikazi soldiers - which includes a kamikazi one man submarine.

hehe, i stand corrected........ :p

just from reading through here i think there are a lot of misconceptions about osaka, i guess that is expected since everyone finds out about tokyo more so.

personally i would choose osaka, because i have lived in the kansai region while studying at university there and well frankly, kansaiben is just so nice. i have been heavily influenced by kansai people and i think i couldn't stand living in tokyo purely because of kantouben.. haha.

but yeah i mean the are both big cities, both full of gaijin. i would choose osaka if travelling is your thing. so much history and culture around the area. there certainly are clubs and that in osaka too, lots of fun to be had.

tokyo will be the last place i live. im planing to move back to japan next year, kansai will be my destination although miyazaki is looking appealing so i can keep up my surfing~

have you tried Kumihama? just north of Hyogo , i think its about 2-3 hours from Kobe