My first destination was a rural area of southern Osaka Prefecture called Kawachi Nagano, "Kawachi" being the old name for the Osaka area. I'm assuming Nagano is just a place name and it doesn't mean this is supposed to be the Osaka version of Nagano; it's light-years away from the elevations and rugged beauty of the Japan Alps. But the area has a nice rural quality to it, as this quiet street in the central city shows.

Cycling through the town, I happened upon this sign - a perfect example of how NOT to teach written Japanese. Three characters, three syllables, the sign makes you think. Actually, the Japanese says “karate-do,” the first two characters being "kara” and ”te" ("empty hand") and the final one meaning "the way of."