Mustachioventures: Kansai Diaries, Day 0: Arrival

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Kansai Diaries, Day 0: Arrival

November 22, 2016
Tuesday
7:55 PM

Touchdown Kansai International Airport. I follow my fellow passengers out of the plane, into the train that would transport us to the main building, and tail them through the airport hallways until we reach Immigration.

The queue at Immigration isn't long. Either our flight's the only one that arrived within the last 15 minutes or so, or their immigration procedure is really efficient. The immigration officer stamps me through and smilingly informs me that I could stay for 30 days (how I wish my wallet and I could!). Immigration, baggage claim, and into the Arrivals Lobby in just a few minutes (ah, yes, they are extremely efficient).

Before proceeding to find the train that will take me to Osaka, I search and find the Tourist Information Booth where I collect some brochures and buy an Osaka Visitors' Ticket, a ticket for unlimited rides on Osaka's municipal subway, tram, and buses, which I plan to use on my the last day of my trip. Why buy it this early? So that I wouldn't have to go and hunt for the Tourist Information Center in Shinsaibashi in Osaka City.

Photo from Tourist Information Center

I mentally go through my things to do and still have two items on my list: (1) buy a Koyasan World Heritage Ticket to be used the next two days, and (2) buy a Kansai One Pass, an IC transportation card to be used for getting around Kansai. I buy these two at the Nankai Airport Station. The man at the counter asks me questions (Koyasan World Heritage Ticket? How many? For when?) and repeats them, making sure we understand each other correctly. I pay and thank him and carefully stuff my Koyasan World Heritage Ticket in my bag and hold my Kansai One Pass, ready for its first use on the Nankai Airport Express to Osaka City's Shin-Imamiya Station.

I arrive in Shin-Imamiya Station in 45 minutes and soon I am rolling my bag along the dingy but clean sidewalks of Osaka, passing by wobbly drunk gentlemen, towards tonight's accommodation: Hotel Raizan. I check in and find my room at the end of the hallway on the nth floor. I take snapshots of my tidy tiny room and send it to my family WhatsApp group, letting them know I have arrived safe and sound.