Saturday, November 22, 2008

First night in Osaka

What. A. Day.

I was woken up at 5:30am by my mum's cat crash-landing on my stomach. We made our way to the airport, where I tearfully left my mum and sister and husband. The flight to Osaka was the longest 9 hours of my life - you don't really appreciate how long 9 hours can be until you've been stuck on a plane for 9 hours. Our arrival to Osaka was... impressive. We came in over Osaka Bay, and saw Kansai Airport all lit up and Osaka all around - Osaka is HUGE!! We made our way through the airport, through immigration and customs, and finally out to the train station, where we found an icecream vending machine. I wanted to keep my first train ticket from my first Japanese train trip, but the machine at Shin-Imamiya station - the station near our hotel - ate it. A really nice guard helped us get our luggage off the station platform - they don't have ramps at the station! So, we managed to get to our hotel, and signed in and were given our keys. Our rooms are tiny!! We're only sleeping in there but still! Barely wide enough for a single bed, a tiny folding table and chairs, and that's about it. Cozy, apparently!! So, after we settled in, we made our way to a little Ramen store for a late dinner, and came across a bunch of vending machines just outside our hotel . The stories are true, vending machines are EVERYWHERE and they sell EVERYTHING!

No. Before you ask, no. I haven't yet seen an underwear vending machine. But I'm sure they exist.

So, it's now nearly 11pm (midnight Brisbane time) and I've been on the go since 5:30am. I'm just about ready for bed!!

3 comments:

Mim said...

Heh Heh 'Welcome to the Big Smoke' - I'm guessing Osaka is more of a real Big City than little ol' Brisbane...

Very relieved you got there okay (once a mother, always a mother) and I've spoken to the Cat, who suggests that it had to be you he landed on as had he landed on your husband he would probably have been turned into fur boots without the benefits of skinning first...

We can haz fotos plz???

Mim said...

Ah, okay, it involved moving the mouse over text until you get to the underlined bit - needz more coffee!!!

Ellen said...

wow sounds like your going to have fun! you have to take lots of picies for us :D. anyway have fun

Ely