Japan 2010 Chronicle - December 21
The alarm was to go off at 05:00 but I got up an hour and a half early and couldn't get back to sleep. I don't think it was the excitement of the holiday, but rather that it was so hot. This would be the last hot night I would have to put up with until the trip was over, so I just dealt with it.
The bags were already packed the previous night, so I only had to do the last few pieces of preparation and pack the last few things into the bag. Then I was drumming my fingers, wondering if there was anything to do. I spent some time playing Minecraft but then I figured I might as well just check in early at the airport.
"I don't think I have even heard a sparrow fart yet," I tweeted, while waiting for the taxi.
The taxi came and got me to the airport while it was still dark outside and the birds were still asleep too. Check-in was relatively painless for a change as the queue was quite short. There was only one other person in the lounge waiting for the flight.
Some time later, Retrovertigo, the travel companion for the trip, appeared. We had booked separately so our seats were nowhere near each other. Note to self, next time, get everyone organised to book well in advance, and book as a group.
The flight went more or less with nothing to note. I ate no food, because I am too stubborn to pay those Jetstar bastards those prices for crappy food. Somehow I managed to get through it without feeling hungry. I spent the entire flight reading episode 7 of Umineko no Naku Koro ni, as it had been on my mind that it would be a bit weird to buy episode 8 without having finished reading up to that point. My laptop battery did die half way through the flight, but the external battery paid off, giving me enough extra charge to use it for the entire flight.
The plane landed at Kansai International Airport in the early evening. The only piece of administrivia at the airport was picking up our JR passes. The JR ticketing office is pretty much impossible to miss and getting the passes went off without a hitch. The woman at the desk helpfully offered to book the first train of the trip at the same time, the Haruka 38 Limited Express at 19:16, bound for Shin-Osaka and Kyoto. I had to dash over to Retro at the desk he was being served at and get him to book a ticket on the same train...
On arriving at the train, someone was sitting in my reserved seat, which initially led to wondering if we had the right carriage. But we checked it and it was the right carriage. Well, I just shrugged and sat elsewhere, and that person got moved by the ticket inspector later. There were an endless number of seats available anyway.
Even though the ticket inspector relocated that other person, he didn't relocate me back to my proper set. I guess he didn't want to try his luck explaining it to someone who was, from his perspective, unlikely to speak a word of Japanese. :)
Transferring at Shin-Osaka Station for the Kobe Line to Sannomiya Station, we finally arrived at "The b" hotel some time around 21:00. We checked in and went out again immediately, looking for food.
After walking the streets randomly for some time, we eventually settled on Dankichi (だん吉). I had a Miso Nikomi Udon, and it was delicious. The right kind of food for a cold evening, even if it wasn't particularly a local dish (I like to explicitly target the local foods when I'm in a new area, but it had been a long day and my mind wasn't exactly in working order.) We ordered some sake to go along with the meal. I panicked wondering if there was a choice in brands and ended up asking this, but it turned out there was no choice. Well, that made it easier, but now asking about it turned out to be awkward. You just can't win... but at least having no choice made things easier.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.