Japan 2015: Return to the Land of the Rising Sun

WeeN's notes: This serves as a teaser for my next posts on my 2015 Japan trip. I'm sorry that some of the photos have crap quality, I alternated between my iPhone and camera. Should have focused only on one to use for blog posts. Hmm.

So I ended up in Japan again last year,  almost the same dates I went in 2012.

Took the bus to KLIA2

Loo Loo, who I met in 2013 and became close to, was so interested in going to Japan that she kept bugging me to go. I was having some reservations because of my family issues, but then I thought "why not?".

I needed to be in one of my favourite countries, just to escape all madness. It was a little selfish of me though. *sighs*

Sue Sue and Loo Loo. The 3 of us were called The Powerpuff Girls when we were working at the same place. Now we're all separated. Sue Sue couldn't follow because of work. :( Hope there will be a time the 3 of us could go somewhere together some day!

Took AirAsia X again, but this time our flight was almost midnight, so we reached Kansai International Airport (KIX) in the morning. :)

The last time I arrived in KIX it was after 10pm, so all shops were closed and the terminal was quite empty.

It was quite a nice change seeing so many people at the terminal.

1st stop in the itinerary: Rinku Premium Outlets!

Traveled by bus from the airport. The bus stand is located at the most-right stop after exiting the terminal, which we failed to locate, and had to seek help from a kind bus driver. There were two lines at the stand - one for Rinku Premium Outlets while the other for the ferry ride to Kobe. We joined in the queue and then realised we had no coins! So we went to a Doutor stall to buy breakfast just get some.

When we got back into the queue the line got longer and by the time we wanted to board, another pair of girls cut our queue. I was a little pissed and straightaway notified the driver and when he told us there were only 3 seats left, I straightaway claimed them as ours since the two girls were still discussing.

Video of the bus ride, since I had first class seat LOL.

The bus ride costed us JPY200 per person (adult price, child is JPY100).

Actually I suggested this because we couldn't check into our accommodation that early and I thought it would be a great opportunity to look at things that we can target to buy, and come back later to buy. 

The weather was wet since it was the rainy season (tsuyu). We sat at the World Gourmet Junction, which is a food court located on the ground floor. Most of the stalls were not open yet since it wasn't even 9am!

The World Gourmet Junction

buns from Doutor, coffees from the food court

last minute map-studying

Loo Loo preparing her "weapon"

Ended purchasing some stuff instead of just looking around. Y'know, just in case we might end up not going back there. I got myself a pair of Adidas Terrex Swift R GTX hiking shoes for JPY8,629 (including tax) while Loo Loo got herself a Samsonite sling bag and a top.

Not even 24 hours in Japan and we had so much damages already.

For lunch we ended up in a restaurant named まめ寅 (Mametora), which I swear was the same place I went before, but I have no idea why it was called Kineya at that time. Maybe it changed to Mametora, or I had read the wrong kanji.

I had a bowl of negitoro don (JPY1080 without tax), which was full of minced fatty tuna fleshes, hence the pale colour. It was so heavenly it just melted in my mouth! Loo Loo had some marinated tuna don.

Then we walked to the りんくうタウン駅 (Rinku-Town eki/Rinku-Town station) through SEACLE, to get to 大国町駅 (Daikokucho eki/Daikokucho station), which is nearby our accommodation in somewhere in 浪速区 (Naniwa-ku/Naniwa Ward).

It was about an hour (or less) train ride. I actually can't remember which train we took LOL. Then we walked to our accommodation at the  ルミナール大国町 (Ruminaru Daikokucho) building. It took us a while to locate the building haha but once we got the hang of it it was actually about a 10-minute walk or less.

Photo taken after checkout wtf

Got into the unit according to the host's guide (which he sent earlier to my email, since I used airbnb). I have a video of the unit at the end of this post. Not a very good one because I was rushing through it! And I didn't take that many photos so.. -__-

After washing up, we took a stroll and ventured to a nearby AEON and bought some beer and snacks, before deciding to head to our nearest 7-11 to get dinner.

The Asahi Style Free was JPY140 while the Asahi Dry Premium was JPY216. Onigiri was JPY130 (including tax)

We shared a katsu curry (JPY498 including tax), which was so delicious even though it was from a convenience store. We had no microwave oven in our unit so we got it heated up in 7-11. I love convenience stores in Japan!

Ooo I just remembered from this photo we bought a Frankfurter as well. It was sooo good!

Here's a very short video on our unit. I'm sorry I failed to take many photos of it. It came with a washing machine, a refrigerator, a toilet, a bathroom with a bathtub and equipped with 2 bunk beds. There was a wardrobe attached too but there were things in it so we couldn't put our luggage and bags inside the wardrobe, hence the room area became a little tight.

But I guess at USD336 for 4 nights, it wasn't a bad choice isn't it?

Thank you for reading this maybe-not-so-important post. Will be posting on the Osaka Aquarium next! :D