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Published: November 18th 2012
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Flight meal
We especially liked the soy sauce bottle shaped like a little fish Day1-2 Travelling to Osaka
We have spent most of the first day travelling, with a 10.5 hr flight from Schipol to Osaka, and then the time difference means we arrived a full 24 hours after setting off. The flight with KLM wasnt bad, the film choices were ok, the evening meal ok, breakfast indifferent, but their version of "reclining" seats certainly wasnt ours - a whole 2 inches! This resulted in us only getting a couple of hours sleep each, we got through immigration without a hitch although taking a picture of your face and finger printing both your index fingers, shows the Japanese are still a pretty paranoid society. We were tired but not wanting to miss out on the day ahead, we went out and about.
We are staying at the airport hotel, which is quite nice, however the airport it built on a manmade island over 30 miles from the centre of Osaka. After leaving our bags at reception, we braved the train line queue, only to find the vending machine didnt sell 2 day rail passes, so we had to join the line of people going into the ticket office. Having spent 25 minutes in
the queue, we found we needed our passports, which we had left in the hotel! Russ dashed back, and to be fair the cashier waited for us to return. Several bows later, we had our pass. On Russ's way back to the hotel he'd spotted a fashion show with colourful Kimonos so we decided to go and take a quick look. Unfortunately it was just ending but we managed to catch one or two. We then headed towards the train and were distracted again by some drumming. We walked towards the noise and found there were some Japanese traditional drummers going beserk on them. We watched for a few minutes before deciding there hopefully will be plenty of opportunity for this sort of thing and we really needed to get out of this train station now as it felt like we'd been there hours. Feeling culturally upbeat we appoached the barrier, and took several minutes to work out what to do as the barriers were all similar to the London underground ones, but our pass was just a paper type stuck into a card so we couldnt use the machine, and had to go to the end of the aisle
to the show it to the ticket attendant who stamped the ticket and waived us through. We selected the "rapid" train to Osaka, which stopped at EVERY station, and took an hour to get to the main station.
We consulted the map, and headed for the exit for the Floating Garden Observatory (there's no garden, but its based on the Gullivers Travel quote). Unfortunately, our map was fairly poor, and we took a circumnavigation route to get to the Umeda Sky Building. Underneath the building, they were having a Christmas Market, vey much like the one in Manchester, but on a smaller scale. We headed up the excalator to join yet another queue for the lift to the 39th floor. The Observatory is at 173m, reached by a glass lift to the 39th floor and then a fairly steep escalator to the first observetion deck and a stairs to the top deck. Once at the top, you can walk round the edge and see Osaka in 360deg. We picked up a map, which pointed out the mnain sights, and in the distance we could see Oskaka Castle where we will be going back to with the tour.
Flagging
slightly on no sleep, we headed down again, and in the basement of the building were a few small restaurants and bars, so we called in for a drink. The local beer was called Asahi - surprisingly ok. We headed back to the station, to catch the train back with every intention of returning that evening. The station was much busier than it had been, and we took the opportunity to visit Tourist Information to get a better map. We caught the train back - rapid - stopping at every station again, and checked into the hotel. We only laid on the bed for a minute, and we were both fast sleep - so much for going back out again!
After a shower a bit of blogging and a beer, bought earlier at the little supermarket. We felt much better and decided it would do us good to get a reasonable nights sleep before heading off once again under our own steam tommorow. Breakfast could be interesting! Noodles and squid urghh!
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anonymous
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Glad u got there ok we r as usual following your blog with interest Good photos Luv M and Dxx