Monday, 12 May 2014

Post #04 (11.05.14) >> Arrival & the Hotel Vista Grande Osaka

It was a nice feeling knowing we had finally reached our destination after such a long journey.

We landed @ at Kansai International Airport.



This Airport is a modern structure with a wavy roof constructed on an artificial man-made island.
KIX is the world's airport longest airport building at some 1.7km in length.
Construction wise, it was also the world's most expensive at the time.

Once through customs and after collecting our luggage, we proceeded to the second floor of the passenger terminal to catch a train into the city.





47 minutes later via the Nankai Airport Express train we arrived at Namba Station.

A short three minute walk from the train station to the hotel was my first glimpse of what was to come.




Wow ! this place was different to anything I've ever seen before.
To put simply, it was clean and quiet but full of people at the same time !.

At this point the culture shock was the hardest thing to comprehend.
The Japanese people looked and acted so differently, especially compared to the Malaysians I had just seen.
Even the most naive non Asian people would know these people aren't all the same.


Hotel Vista Grande Osaka
http://www.vistagrande.jp/en/
5-15, Soemon-cho, Chuo-ku, Osaka, Japan

A small hotel conveniently located, close to everything including the restaurants and night-life of Dotonbori and shopping of Shinbiashi-suji etc..

The Lacoste stores I plan on visiting are a mere 550 & 1100 metres away  (^_^).

We arrived at the front counter to check-in to our rooms & pickup our B-mobile sim cards.


Trevor and I are sharing a twin room together whilst the other guys are in a triple share room.
Great value for A$69 a night, even less for the other three guys.

Room #1018 is our home for the next few days.







Our view out of the window

Last year on our Melbourne trip, Trevor and I shared a room together with two single beds.
One day, he claimed that he woke up to the sight of me watching him sleep.
Truth be told, that is not how it was ... he was actually watching me sleep.

To ensure I wouldn't mistaken Trevor for my wife in the middle of the night, I wanted to seperate the two single beds.
I looked for something to act as a barrier but there was nothing to serve that purpose.
We ended up using a pillow to seperate our faces.

Another issue was the bathroom blinds, which didn't quite close and stay closed enough ! uh-oh.



After settling in and establishing some ground rules with Trevor, it was time to explore.

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