Day 9 – 12 October 2024, Saturday

For our day of departure, we went for an early breakfast at our hotel at 7:15am. It was not crowded yet so we were seated immediately, unlike yesterday. After breakfast, I made a quick visit to the last of my list of places to see in Osaka. It was another sunny day and the morning air was crisp and cool at 15 degrees C. From Hiyori Hotel, I walked for less than 10 minutes and reached Namba Yasaka Jinja. When I visited at 7:55am, it was still relatively quiet, but the crowds started streaming in shortly after.

Namba Yasaka Jinja is perhaps the interesting shrine I have ever visited. The Honden (Main Sanctuary) is a typical Japanese shrine but the centrepiece here is the enormous lion head building called the Ema-Den. Measuring 12 metres tall and 11 metres wide, the jade green lion with its fearsome eyes and open mouth is meant to swallow any evil spirits, leaving you with good fortune to pursue your endeavours.

Even though it has been described as a lion, it didn’t look like one to me, perhaps because my idea of a lion is more closely aligned to that of the “cute” Chinese lion depicted in our traditional Lion Dance rituals. The one here is menacing and looks more like a cross between a dragon and a beast. Nevertheless, it perfectly encapsulates the quirkiness of Osaka, and it’s highly worth a visit.

After 10 minutes, I left Namba Yasaka Jinja and walked back to the hotel. We then checked out of our rooms and walked to Namba Station to catch our 9:30am Nankai train to the airport. The train station is located just opposite Hiyori Hotel so it was very convenient. That’s actually the main reason I chose to stay at Hiyori Hotel.

The best way to travel from the city to Kansai International Airport (KIX) is via the Airport Limited Express Rapi:t train (click here). I pre-booked our tickets and bought the Super Seats, which are wider and have three seats in a row. The regular seats are four in a row. The Super Seat costs 1,490 yen (S$13.85) while the regular seat costs 1,300 yen, so the price difference isn’t that much and it’s worth paying just a little more for the upgrade, even though the journey is relatively short at 38 minutes.

The Namba Station entrance that we used was the South Entrance via Namba City mall. It was not the main entrance so it was rather small. I retrieved the booking from my email and loaded the webpage to scan our digital tickets at the gantry. It was then that I discovered I had to share the tickets with each person and create an account in advance. It was not like the Shinkansen system where I could access and scan all 6 tickets from my phone. For this Nankai Line, each traveller is required to have their digital ticket on their own mobile phone. It was a very cumbersome process, and it was not something that can be done quickly on the spot.

As I struggled to send the tickets to the other five members, the female station staff wearily handed me a small printed memo that said “QR code has not been processed yet. Please give this memo to the ticket gate staff at the station where you get off.” She wrote “5” on it, indicating 5 members have not had their digital tickets scanned yet.

The fact that this memo exists means it is a common problem encountered by travellers, and we were not the first to experience it. I rarely have anything to complain about Japan’s train systems (or anything at all about Japan, in fact), but this Nankai digital ticket system can be improved to make it more user-friendly.

After passing through the gate manually, we looked for the way to the train platform. There were stickers on the ground marking the routes to the platforms. Perhaps I was flustered by the ticket situation, but I wasn’t thinking clearly, and I missed the purple line leading to platform 9, where the Limited Express Rapi:t train was. Instead, I saw the words “Airport Express” and immediately followed the blue line leading to platforms 5 and 6.

What greeted us was a flight of stairs, a nemesis for travellers with heavy suitcases at the end of a 9-day trip. We looked around but didn’t see any escalator or lift. Months ago, I had also read online reviews of Hiyori Hotel mentioning about how convenient it is to get to Namba Station, but there is no lift to the train platform. Hence, I was already mentally prepared to climb stairs. As such, there was only one thing to do, which was to heave our suitcases up the flight of stairs.

After huffing and puffing, we finally got onto the platform. There was still about 45 minutes to go before our train departs so we were there in good time. We made our way to the boarding area for Car 5 and got in position. While waiting, I walked around to confirm that we were in the right place because something didn’t feel right. Dad also asked repeatedly if we were at the right place. I think he already suspected something was wrong when we chose to take the blue line instead of the purple line earlier.

After examining the timetable board at the platform for the umpteenth time, something finally clicked and I realised that we were at the wrong platform. I walked over to Platform 9 and confirmed that we should be there instead. I hurriedly got everyone to move over from Platform 5 to Platform 9, and we got there at 9:13am.

That was a close shave. Imagine us continuing to stand foolishly at Platform 5, wondering why our Rapi:t train never arrived. That would have been a stupid mistake. Hence, it is important to arrive early at the train station and factor in enough time to deal with unforeseen circumstances. It also helps to have more than one pair of eyes to keep a lookout.

After this debacle, I realised that if we had followed the purple line earlier, there was an escalator leading to platform 9 and we wouldn’t have had to heave our luggage up the stairs. I also saw that the main entrance to Namba Station is much bigger than the South Entrance (which we came in from), and it is at the same level as the train platforms. If we came in from the main entrance, we wouldn’t have had to climb any stairs or use the escalator. Coming in from the main entrance, we would also have a clearer view of all the train platforms and we likely would have gone to the correct Platform 9 for our train.

I also thought about the female station staff we encountered earlier, who was not helpful at all. She surely would have seen us struggling with our luggage because the staircase is not far from the ticket gate where she was stationed at. And she knew that we were on the Limited Express Rapi:t train because she checked our tickets. The least she could have done was to alert us to follow the purple line to Platform 9.

That was the only instance of encountering an unhelpful Japanese during the trip. Perhaps this was why we ended up at the wrong platform – we are so used to Japanese being helpful all the time. But when they are not helpful, you won’t even suspect anything is wrong because you assume that they will always help you get to where you are meant to go.

In any case, our Limited Express Rapi:t train arrived at 9:16am and we boarded after the cleaners completed their housekeeping duties. We had reserved seats and the train was not full so we could store our luggage on the racks. We departed Namba Station at 9:30am sharp and zoomed smoothly towards KIX, arriving at 10:09am. The Super Seats were very comfortable indeed and it was a very pleasant ride.

Upon alighting at KIX, we walked over to our check-in counter at Row G. When we arrived at 10:18am, there was already five rows of people in the snaking line before us. I thought we were early, but evidently not. The queue was not moving because the check-in counters only opened at 10:40am, 2½ hours before the flight. I double checked to make sure that we were at the correct check-in row. When it was our turn for check-in, it was already 11:05am.

However, we had an issue as FL’s luggage weighed 27kg, exceeding the 23kg limit. We knew we had 2 x 23kg check-in allowance, but we didn’t know that the maximum weight is 23kg per piece and you cannot exceed it, even though you are only checking in one piece of luggage. To be honest, it was a rookie mistake and I should have been aware of it, so it was partly my fault that I didn’t alert FL beforehand. We quickly moved aside for FL to re-pack her luggage.

Luckily, she had a spare foldable duffel bag so she was able to transfer her clothes and other unimportant items into the duffel bag for check in. We then went back to the counter to repeat the process. By the time we completed our check-in process at 11:40am, we were the last to do so. All the other passengers on our flight had already finished before us.

With our boarding passes in hand, we quickly went through security and immigration. After that, we still had to take a 2-minute shuttle train to our Gate 37, which was located in another building. After alighting from the shuttle train, we bought some sandwiches and lattes to grab a quick bite before the flight. It was a testy kind of morning and I badly needed a coffee.

Our China Eastern flight MU226 departed Osaka at 1:10pm. I thought we would only be served a snack on board but it was a full meal of fried noodles with vegetables and chicken, fresh cut fruit (apple, pineapple and red pomelo), a red bean snack and a bottle of water. Not bad. We touched down at Shanghai Pudong Airport at 2:50pm local time (Shanghai is one hour behind Osaka), 15 minutes later than scheduled. After landing, we taxi-ed on the runway for another 18 minutes before reaching our gate.

After disembarking, we had to walk quite a distance to reach security and immigration. All these resulted in a tighter than expected transfer window so the airport staff gave us each a big orange “Express Connection” sticker to let us cut the queue for expedited clearance. We eventually cleared everything at 3:48pm, what a mad rush it was.

Boarding for our second flight was supposed to start at 3:45pm but it was delayed. An announcement was made: “Due to international disembarkation, boarding has been suspended”. I’m not sure what it meant, but I guess that the number of people who disembarked from the flight did not tally with the number that boarded, so someone went missing or something. They eventually sorted it out, and we were allowed to board at 4:04pm. It was a larger aircraft, with a 2-4-2 seating configuration compared to the earlier one, which was 3-3. Our China Eastern flight MU545 departed Shanghai at around 4:45pm, 15 minutes later than scheduled.

Dinner was served at 5:55pm. It was another full meal – rice with Chinese sausage and chicken, with a cold dish of carrot salad with ham, spring onion crackers, millet crackers and green bean soup. For the amount we paid for the China Eastern flights (only S$231 for the two legs), I think it was very good value for money.

We finally touched down at Changi Airport Terminal 3 at 10:00pm sharp. What a day of rushing here and there, I was left exhausted by the whole experience. But most importantly, we made it home safely. And nothing feels better than being home at last.

Closing Thoughts

For my eSIM in Japan, I tried Voyafly (click here) for the first time and it was very good. I had unlimited data each day (subject to Fair Usage Policy), and the Internet connection was very stable and fast. I previously used Yoowifi, which did not offer unlimited data – only 500MB, 1GB or 2GB daily, or a fixed amount of data. Voyafly is also cheaper than Yoowifi, and there was further discount when we bought four eSIMs for the four of us iPhone users. I recommend Voyafly and will use it for my future travels.

For this trip, we had a bit of everything – big cities, a day trip to a quieter and different area outside Tokyo (Kamakura/Enoshima), doing purely sightseeing stuff in Hakone, one night of onsen, shopping at Gotemba Premium Outlets, relaxed mode at Kawaguchiko, and even a thrilling time at Fuji-Q Highland. The weather wasn’t on our side for Shibuya Sky and Kawaguchiko, but I’m grateful that we got to see Mount Fuji on our last morning there. That made it all the sweeter.

We chose to travel in October because it is supposed to be cooler. Before departing for the trip, we had been monitoring the weather in Japan so we already knew it was not going to be too cold, but in the mid 20s. On our first day in Tokyo, it was so hot, just like Singapore’s weather but without the humidity. Then it rained for the whole day on the second day, which made it cooler. Hakone was surprisingly cold, especially up the mountain at Owakudani. It rained a lot in Kawaguchiko, which made it nice and cool, and it got hot again in Osaka. So overall, we got to experience some cool weather, which was what we wanted. We would have been quite disappointed if it remained hot for the entire nine days.

The hotels I picked were generally very good except for Hiyori Hotel in Osaka, which was really tiny to be comfortable for three people in a room. The location was convenient for our last day to access the Nankai train line, but I felt it was a bit far from the centre of the action at Shinsaibashi. I loved our villa at Kawaguchiko. It was nice the six of us were able to stay together for two nights. I also loved Oishi Park and the flower corridor right at our doorstep. And of course, the view of Mount Fuji from the villa on the last morning was postcard perfect.

Food wise, I would have loved to have eaten more sushi and ramen. But we ate most of the things I wanted to eat – Ichiran, Yoshinoya, a good tonkatsu, Houtou noodles, okonomiyaki, and dining at an izakaya. The Unagi rice bowl from Yoshinoya was my favourite meal, though the sushi at Shinsekai was very good too.

Shopping wise, I am happy with my CD haul, though I was very disappointed the Book Off staff at Osaka couldn’t locate the discs for the Jackson 5 box set. I bought a few vinyl records but didn’t manage to find any super rare ones. I did visit all the record shops on my list, though I would have probably spent more time crate digging if I was alone.

This being my second visit to Osaka, I found it to be very different from Tokyo. If I thought Kabukicho was loud, everything in Osaka seemed to be even louder and more outlandish, with larger-than-life sculptures and colourful decorations everywhere, especially at Dotonbori and Shinsekai. I also noticed there were a lot more Chinese-speaking staff at the shops in Osaka, so Osaka feels a bit more catered towards the Chinese market, whereas Tokyo feels more authentically Japanese.

Tokyo is definitely much more familiar to me, and Tokyo seems to have more different famous areas like Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Asakusa and many others, whereas everything in Osaka seems to be concentrated at Namba. However, we didn’t really explore outside of Namba and we didn’t do any of the cultural sightseeing stuff like Osaka Castle or the big temples, so perhaps we only saw a limited side of Osaka. If there are cheap air tickets to Osaka, I don’t mind going back again to explore deeper.

On some days, we spent a lot of time waiting for buses and trains, because we wanted to make sure we had space to store our luggage so we arrived very early to ensure we were the first to board. That’s the difference between independent travelling versus tour group, where everything is planned for you. But I love taking trains so the waiting and scrambling is part of the experience.

The favourite thing we did was the cruise on the “pirate” ship down Lake Ashi. The cool and foggy weather made the ride more enjoyable. The most memorable experience was at Owakudani, where we unexpectedly encountered the super strong winds out of nowhere. The funnest thing I did was Fuji-Q Highland, taking all the crazy rollercoaster rides with AA. I’m glad I had a kaki to go with. The most disappointing thing was Shibuya Sky. That was something I had been eagerly anticipating so it was devastating when we couldn’t access the outdoor rooftop because of the rain.

I was actually under the weather the entire trip, which sucked. I was getting better after Day 3, but I got worse again after that, perhaps due to the change in weather. I felt lethargic on certain days but luckily, I had no fever and I still had a good appetite. Sometimes, you need a bit of luck when you travel, and that includes being physically well for a start. But overall, it was another memorable trip with the family.