Arriving in Japan

The Air NZ flight from Auckland to Osaka took 11 hours, ending in a descent into cloud and rain which blocked the view during the approach over the water to Kanzai airport until the wheels were almost on the tarmac. The plane landed at 5:20 pm on Saturday local time, in 25 degree heat and high humidity.

Kanzai is on a man-made island in the sea. An automatic rail shuttle took us to the main terminal, where we were videoed by surgically-masked men to check for fevers, then fingerprinted and photographed. Having passed those checks we retrieved our bags and escaped into Japan.

The next step in our plan was to take the train into Namba Station in Osaka. There are enough English signs around the airport to show the way to the trains. On the way we were distracted by a MacDonald's sign, which made us realise getting dinner on that first night might be a non-trivial exercise. We succumbed and successfully ordered some burgers, thanks to Lisa's fading memories of Japanese and a very helpful girl behind the counter. She spoke little  English, but like everyone I've imposed upon since was very cheerful and helpful. I bought tickets from a man and we found the train, which took us on quite a long ride into Osaka.

It was dark when we pulled into Namba Station in Osaka. Given the darkness and the rain we decided to try our luck on the subway for the last leg, instead of walking. We took a long time to find the correct subway station, and work out how to buy tickets from a machine, but with help from a couple more locals we eventually made it. We surfaced from the underground onto an intersection in Nipponbashi, with people and cars everywhere, and the rain. The compass in my phone helped us finally reach the "Namba Washington Hotel Plaza" a short distance away, a most welcome sight.

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