11/10 - Moving Day, Sayonara Shinsaibashi

The night before was our last night at the Hearton Hotel Shinsaibashi.  The rooms may have been small leaving very little room for luggage and moving around, but it was clean and comfortable.  The smell of stale smoke lingered somewhat, but fortunately, I could just ignore it.  Plus, we even got cable TV in our room which was awesome when we were resting our extremely tired feet.

Early this morning, we checked out of the Hearton Hotel with our luggage and proceeded to go to our next accommodation.  Before leaving for Osaka, N had looked up a few accommodation options.  One was a guesthouse run by Taiwanese lady.  This was a place featured in one of her Chinese-language travel books for the Kansai region.  I can't remember when, but a few days earlier N called up this lady to book a room at her place.  Fortunately, there was still space available for the few days for which we were extending our stay.  Perfect.

We thought the guesthouse was pretty far from where we were, so the plan was to hop onto the subway, go the one station, then walk over to the guesthouse.  When we got down to Shinsaibashi [心齋橋] subway station, it was right smack dab in the middle of rush hour.  True to their reputation, Japanese subways are notoriously packed during rush hour.  We waited for 3 trains before even attempting to get onto a subway car with our luggage.  If it was too packed, we didn't want to force our way on.  We thought it would really rile the polite-savvy Japanese.  In the end, it was still tight and we were only going the one stop to Hommachi [本町] station. 

Unfortunately, many Japanese subway stations are not designed with accessibility in mind.  I'm not sure how a person on wheelchair would get around, but we constantly lifting and lowering our luggage through a series of staircases.  Then we counted our blessings each time we encountered an elevator.

Later on, we actually discovered it would have been faster, easier, and a lot less work to have just walked from the hotel.  Grrr....

So we walked a couple of blocks south from Hommachi Station to the guesthouse and checked in with the owner.  A group of Taiwanese tourists were leaving for a day's outing in Osaka as we entered.  We had to leave our shoes in the entryway and took a pair of slippers.  When we entered the guesthouse on the ground level, the kitchen was right by the entry and there was a small living room where a giant flat screen TV dominated the room.  There were a couple of guestrooms labeled with room numbers just behind the living room.

N chatted with the owner and got our keys for the small guest room on the second floor.  She reminded us that the guesthouse is usually locked up in the middle of the day as she runs her personal errands or visits kids and grandkids.  N and the owner worked out the costs and we were set.

I think the lady owner was a bit absent minded, though, because she kept thinking we had just flown in from Hong Kong.  N had told her a few times already that we had flown from Canada and had been in town for many days already.  It just didn't seem to really register in her mind even a few days later.

The staircase up to the upper floors was directly across from the giant flat screen TV.  This staircase was super narrow too.  We had some difficulty lifting our North American size luggage up as the staircase twisted upwards.  There was no landing to speak of, so it was non stop up to the second floor.

Our room was bare and very minimal.  No complaint here.  There was no bed, but simply a floor level mattress on which to sleep.  Of course, there were two pillows and a comforter to make the sleeping amenities complete.  There were a few hooks on which we could hang jackets and/or towels.  On top of a small table beside the door sat a small TV set.  Oh oh.  No cable and only 3 working channels.  The evenings would not be as entertaining here.  A look out of the curtained window showed that our room looked directly upon the road below.  Luckily, it was not a busy street by an stretch of the imagination.  It was a narrow one-way street with only the occasional mini-lorry or car rolling by.

Just outside our room was the shared bathroom - shower.  And boy was this ever a small and tight set up in the bathroom.  Very narrow door to enter the bathroom and the toilet is literally right there upon entry.  I had a couple of few square feet to turn around.  I could literally sit on the toilet and rest my head on the opposing wall. That's how small it was.  The toilet featured a lever that could be pushed down on or pulled up upon.  Down was labeled "big" for a big flush and up was labeled "small" for small flushes.  I don't think I have to explain more.  The toilet had a small thin pipe that run up the side with a spot that hung directly over the middle of the toilet tank.  With a flush water would flow out of this small pipe and into a hole on the top of the toilet tank.  I guess the idea is that you could wash your hands using the water that would fill the toilet tank right after flushing the toilet.  I thought that was a good way to maximize the use of the toilet water.  Then there was the shower.  Oh my gosh, this shower stall had the sink and mirror inside the stall.  Very awkward and very tight.  I always hate it when I end up tracking my wet feet outside of a shower stall and make everything wet and dirty.  I was not looking forward to the shower tonight.

The day was wasting away, so we just dropped off our belongings and took what would need for the day and get a move on our day.  The first order of the day was to get some sustenance in our tummies.  I didn't really want to have Matsuya for the umpteenth day again, so I suggested we eat breakfast at all small Western style bakery we passed on the way here.  It was called the London Coffee & Bakery, or something to that effect.  It served dead simple continental like breakfast.  That was fine with me because I just wanted something different.  N, however, wasn't all that happy.  And for some strange reason, I had been craving coffee all this time while traveling through Japan.  I usually don't have coffee so this was really an out of the ordinary kind of craving for me.  N grabbed a pre-wrapped pork cutlet sandwich and ordered a glass of milk.  I ordered something off the menu; something because I wasn't altogether sure what I was order, and a cup of coffee.  Apparently what I ordered was honey drizzled toast of some sort.  Hmm ... a little more plain Jane than what expected.  In other words, not what I was looking for.  Whatever, though.  We partook in our daily bread and were quickly off to Osaka-jo [大坂城], or Osaka Castle.

Travel Day(s) - flying into Osaka

H blogging here.

November 1st was our travel day.  We had our passports in hand, travel medical insurance covered, and I had 4 immunization shots two days beforehand. (NB: do not wait until the last moment to get immunized; very bad on my part).  I had a mild fever right after my shots, but thankfully I was fine on the day before because packing was not done yet.

On the day of our departure, we got to the airport and checked in.  The line was longer than we thought for 3 hours before boarding time.  The flight was full of people bound for different destinations.  It was obvious that some people were just laying over in Tokyo to go to Hong Kong or India.

So once we checked in our luggage and got our boarding passes, we did a very Chinese thing.  We went for dim sum with our family.  Because heaven forbid that an airline would properly feed you.  I guess this is all part of the trip experience, even if it is in Richmond.  The dim sum place opened up at 9:30am and we were there when they unlocked the doors.  After stuffing ourselves with dim sum.  We were dropped off at the airport.  We went through security without a hitch and were soon whisked away into the wild blue yonder with Japan Airlines.

Our flight was bound for Tokyo's Narita International Airport.  We had to fly through Tokyo because JAL no longer offers direct flights from Vancouver to Kansai International Airport, aka KIX.  One person told me that the landing fees were quite expensive for KIX and most airlines would avoid that airport if possible.  Also, the Kansai Airport is much further out of town than the smaller Osaka Airport.  So our itinerary had us fly into Tokyo's Narita International Airport, then catch a connecting JAL Express flight from Narita to Osaka's Itami Airport.

[Side note about Kansai International - the airport is built on a man-made island and sinks a meter or two every year because of the weight of the structure.]

Our flight was just under 10 hours from Vancouver to Tokyo.  I normally do not sleep well on planes, so I usually end up watching the movies or reading the paper to pass the time.  I watched two pretty good Japanese movies on the plane.  One was called The Taste of Fish about a successful worker from a trading company who discovers a new life helping out his girlfriend's father's business in the world's largest fish market, Tsukiji.  The other was Summit: A Chronicle of Stones to Serenity.  It was about a team of early 20th century cartographers from the Japanese army who set out to map and ascend to the top of Mount Tsurugidake.  Both were interesting films.  The Taste of Fish was light and comical.  Not surprising since the movie is based on a manga.  Summit was a very serious drama about how the explorers braved the elements to map an entire mountain range and attempt to climb to the top of the unclimbable Mount Tsurugidake.  I was on Japan Airlines, so I might as well watch the local cinema.

We landed about 20 minutes ahead of schedule in Tokyo.  We had to disembark and go through customs.  After customs, we went to collect our luggage from the carousel.  Once we got our luggage, we quickly found the domestic check-in to go to Osaka.  The lady at the desk offered us a couple of seats on an earlier flight. We were ecstatic about getting to Osaka earlier and took the offer.  However, the flight was to take off in 30 minutes.  We had to go back through security.  Unfortunately, they only had one line open for security for domestic flights.  Our 30 minutes soon whittled down to 10 minutes to take off by the time we got through security.  We rushed to our gate.  I don't know if you have had this experience, but my flights always seem to be parked at the furthest, or next to furthest, gates in the airport.  Most of the plane had boarded already, but thankfully there was a half-dozen of us rushing down the hall to get to the flight.  So we didn't feel so bad about being stragglers because there were so many of us.

Once on the plane, we took off for Osaka.  It was a short 1 hour flight and my flight fatigue was definitely starting to hit.  I think I managed a wink or two on this quick flight.  But it was up and down with one drink service.  It was sort of like the Vancouver to Calgary flight.

We arrived in Osaka on very blustery Monday evening.  We had left on a Sunday morning and lost a day after crossing the International Date Line.  It was really, really windy.  I was happy that I had two layers of clothes and three layers of jackets with me to bulk up. Even then, I was still feeling the chill.  Mind you, I do get the chill easily.   Did I say it was really windy?

Before leaving the airport, we remembered to get the Kansai Thru Pass from the info desk.  We wouldn't need it right away, but there aren't too many places that sell the pass.  After getting our passes, we exited the terminal and found our way to the elevated Osaka Airport Monorail Station.  We bought our ubiquitously tiny Japanese transit tickets and waited for the train. We were excited to be in Japan, but I was feeling a bit of the exhaustion.  However, I had my SLR camera out like the good photog I'm supposed to be.  I snapped photos of the platform and the signs.

 

The announcement for the next train was broadcast.  Then low and behold, a PINK monorail car glided into the station.  I was not expecting my first ride in Osaka to be a pink train, but it was all good.  I madly snapped shots of the train, but I had my 35mm fixed lens on and could not get a shot of the whole train as it entered the station.  Once on the train, we instantly soaked in the warmth.  I snapped a shot of the interior.  That instantly caught the attention of the locals.  They must have been thinking "Gaikakujin," or foreigner.  Perhaps it's the same thing we think when we see Japanese tourists in town.  I didn't really like the attention so I put my camera away.

 

We took the monorail about 4 stations to Senri-Chuo station.  We offloaded with our luggage in tow.  The connecting subway station was apparently across the street in the very bottom level of a shopping complex.  We were happily dragging our luggage along and making the easy descent down a series of escalators until there were no more escalators on the last section down to the subway mezzanine level.

We ended up manually taking our ~20 kilo pieces of luggage down the stairs.  No wonder I always put out my back, alignment, and shoulders after a trip to Asia.  Where have all the escalators gone?  Thankfully from the mezzanine down to the platform, there was an elevator.  We definitely took advantage of that.

Senri-chuo is the northern terminus station for the Osaka Municipal Subway's Midosuji Line.  We were bound for Shinsaibashi Station in the middle of town and many stations away.  I don't really remember how long the ride to Shinsaibashi was.  It must have been a mix of the elation of being in Japan and the exhaustion of the long flight to Japan.

Once we got to Shinsaibashi Station, we ran into the same problem with stairs.  There just weren't obvious signs of where the closest elevators or escalators were.  So we ended up pulling our luggagge up the stairs step-by-painful-step.   Luckily, the very last ascent had an elevator available to take us to street level.

Before flying to Japan, we had taken a virtual walk of the area to figure out where our hotel was.  I remembered that we had a McDonald's nearby.  So we walked down the main stretch until we saw a McDonald's.  I thought we were right around the corner from the McD's.  Unfortunately, the McD's was actually a block further than our hotel.  So we had walked to far.  What I forgot was that Google Street showed that there was a Kate Spade New York store directly across from our hotel.  If I had remembered that, we probably wouldn't have done a loop around.  At least, the block wasn't too big.