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| Two very excited couples! |
We got our air tickets cheap at $530 for Cathay Airlines. However, we had to transit at Hong Kong.
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| First glimpse of Japan |
Japan at last. The first few flutters of excitement start to kick in!
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| JR pass exchange counter |
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| Long Queue! |
Upon leaving the arrival hall of Narita airport, we headed straight for the JR pass exchange counter. And waited for more than an hour even though there were just 7 customers in front. In turns out that the the exchange process takes 5-10 min per customer! The queue extended right to the back of the hall. Good luck to those behind. God knows how long they waited.
We got the passes and reserved seat Narita Express and Shinkansen tickets just 3 min before the Narita Express was due to depart. We then ran for it lol.
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| The $500 JR Pass. |
Bad thing about the JR pass is that if u lose it, there is no replacement. Essentially that is a SGD $500 piece of card that you cannot fit into your wallet, making it easy to misplace.
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| Our hotel |
After a 4 hour Shinkansen ride from Tokyo Station to Shin-Osaka Station, followed by a 15min subway ride from Shin-Osaka Station to Namba Station, we spent an additional 15min looking for our hotel.
It's actually very near the subway exit 5 or 6, but its kinda hidden in an alley.
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| Okonomiyaki |
Our first taste of Japanese food! A small store along the main road selling a savoury Japanese pancake for just 100 yen. It was delicious and made us salivate in anticipation of more good food to come.
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| Outlet shopping! |
With just a few hours of daylight left we followed the itinerary planned weeks in advance and headed for Rinku where there was an outlet shopping area.
Not much deals here though. I got a nice Adidas T-shirt for only SGD $20 after a 20% discount coupon they were giving out, but that's about it.
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| Soba and rice |
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| Tonkatsu with egg and Soba |
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| How the Soba is made |
Hungry after shopping, we looked around the various restaurants near the outlet shopping area. Ootoya was there, seems like a famous chain, we were to see more it it in various cities and towns.
The Soba was great, nice and soft, and the soup was just salty enough. We saw how the Soba was made after we finished the meal. Note the pic at the bottom left corner. Hope he washed them.
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| Takoyaki |
Back in Osaka, we went straight to the Dotonbori district where most of the nightlife in Osaka is. This is where all the neon signs associated with Osaka are located. Tons of restaurants here. Many Takoyaki stalls throng the area. The pic is of Jamie's favorite Takoyaki stall, served in a "boat".
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| Iconic Crab with moving claws |
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| Kani Doraku |
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| Menu |
Last stop of the night at the famous Kani Doraku restaurant where they occupy the entire building and have a large crab with mechanized claws waving. Great view of the canal from the fourth floor where we were seated. We ordered 2 of the 5000 yen Zuwai crab sets to share and added 2 servings of porridge which was essentially rice added to the shabu shabu soup after we had finished and topped off with some seasoning. It made a simple but very delicious ending to the meal.
The set consisted of:
Boiled crab with vinegar
Crab tempura
Crab shabu shabu
Crab sushi
Crab chawanmushi
Back to the hotel after a long day of traveling for a well derserved rest.
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