Flight and Day 1

Flight to Japan, in economy, turned out to be pretty good.  Plane half empty so Tessa and Louis had a whole 4 seats available to her and she made good use of it stretched out and sleeping for 6 hours straight.  Louis watched 3 movies with his new Logitech headphones.

I got through 4 episodes of Stargate and had Connie sleep on my lap.  Nothing on Jetstar is free apart from water, tea and coffee.  We ended up buying some meat pies and chicken wraps.  We did get a privileged visit from our travelling companions, The Clair Bears, in Business class who took pity on us and smuggled a couple of chocolate bars much to my joy.

All in all not a bad flight and arrival in Osaka greeted us with a cool 2 degrees on a dark night.  Customs was fine and our first contact was with an elderley and happy gentleman telling us we had not completed our immigration papers completely.  4 ticks in the right boxes and off we went to catch our train.

The open railway complex and nice cool temperature reminded Connie why she swore to burn her winter coat after the europe trip and made her question herself why she hadn’t…..

Off we go to the JR office where we swap our 7 day train pass voucher for a 7 day train pass!  Laura was all over it like a fat kid on a cupcake.  Speaking japanese like a true local and in just a few minutes we were all sorted. Train trip to hotel was smooth and quick.  They say you can set you watch by the trains in Japan and after 3 days here, I can confirm it is true.  

Hotel is really nice and spacious although it is a “western” style and I have been warned that the accommodation in Nozawa won’t be as comfortable.  Guess we will know in a few days.

We headed out from our hotel around 9 and ended up in the Dotanbori area which is a big restaurant area along many alleys and small road ways. Our first meal was a pork ramen in what appeared to be a soup kitchen with no chairs.  Had to kneel down or straddle the raised “bench”.  Bit hard to explain but it was nice and only $9 with extra pork.  While walking the streets we tried the traditional Japanese octopus balls know as takoyaki.  Served with sauce and fish flakes, they are a nice snack the size of a golf ball. Then we found our lady of the sea, Starbucks, and thought we would try the coffee.  Not bad but not as good as Cinema Bridgeman back in Brisbane.

Walked back around midnight and off to bed in preparation for day 2 :-)

FYI the 2 Japanese guys in the photo below recognised me as George Clooney and were excited to speak with me.  We could use this to our advantage on this trip :)