Kansai IX
We got to Kansai international at 7:00 in the morning. There isn’t really that much difference between Kansai and Perth – although they’ve invented a cartoon ‘Customs Hamster’ who has a customs badge and a little hat and delivers messages about customs in many different languages. We got off the plane and signed in, then went straight off to buy a train ticket (which was very close to the airport). Apparently Kansai International Airport is actually a big floating wad of crap with an airport on it – it isn’t attached to the seabed by anything more than wire.
On the train trip from Kansai Airport to Tennoji station we had all lost the power of speech and so were just looking out the window. Osaka is a really weird place – it’s got loads of small, badly made houses with exquisite bonsai trees, next to small basketball court sized fields of rice and cabbages. It’s odd how much little detail will go into things over here – the subways are pretty gross but you can look on a manhole and there’ll be a carved image of old Osaka on the front
So on the first day we decided we needed to drop off all of our stuff at the youth hostel, and then go to a really crowded place. I wanted to go to den-den town to buy a camera (which I got secondhand in firsthand condition so I’m happy), so we got on some random trains and eventually got there (after a lot of walking the wrong way). Den-Den Town is a cool place – there’s lots of electronic shops and then there’s also music shops, clothes stores and restaurants.
For lunch we went to a ramen bar – where we had udon noodle soup. It was a really nice place to go on a cold rainy day and was quite cheap (360 yen). I also had a cabbage pancake which was 100 yen and suprisingly tasty. After a bit more shopping we went back to the youth hostel and stayed around here until teatime. Our plan was to make a batch of instant noodles but when we got to the kitchen we met a sumo team who gave us some sumo soup (which was good and hearty – tasted like a chicken / vege broth) and some beers and green tea. Although Simon and the Sumo’s manager were talking the most (because Simon is better at Japanese than Jo and I) it was a good but very strange experience.
Tomorrow we’re off to Tokyo for 3 days so hopefully I’ll be able to get onto the net there.
