23 Nov 2023 - Thunder Storm is coming!

Dark clouds accumulated all over the sky.  Nature is beautiful and scary at the same time.

20 Nov 2023 - Osaka Day 11: Kansai Airport and Flight Home

We heard about the situation at Kansai Airport whereby there was always a long queue to enter into the transit area.  As such, we took no risk by arriving at the airport early.

After checking in, we followed a long snaking queue and eventually saw a man (below) holding up a sign saying, "End of Line".  When you need a person to do this, you can imagine how crowded the airport was.

Our flight took off on time.

As usual, when we reached a specific altitude, the cabin crew started serving our meals.

After my meal, I managed to capture the evening orange sky in the horizon.

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20 Nov 2023 - Osaka Day 11: Rinku Pleasure Town and Premium Outlet

Rinku Town is about an hour metro ride away from Osaka city.  It has the largest outlet shopping center (Rinku Premium Outlets) in western Japan, and is located across from Kansai International Airport.

We were here about 15 years ago with Jerlene when she was less than 2 years old.  The below indoor playground still around and I remembered Jerlene had such a good time here.  You may read more about it here.

As it's lunch time, we had our meal at the food court.

You will never miss the iconic Ferris Wheel when you are here.

Rinku Premium Outlet is a 2-story building in the style of the old American port town Charleston houses over 210 shops.  As we did not have much time here, we did not do any shopping.

Instead, we decided to try our luck at the claw machine.  The reason that I took a photo of the below machine was that I managed to "catch" one Kirby figurine in my first attempt.  Javier was so happy because Kirby was his favourite character.

Soon, it's time to take the train to the airport.

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20 Nov 2023 - Osaka Day 11: Last minute shopping at Namba City

Before we checked out of our hotel, Tracy and I went for some last-minute shopping around Namba City area.  With that, our 11 days Kyoto/Osaka trip finally came to an end.

If we went to the airport immediately after checking out, we would be too early as our flight's departure time was 5:25pm.  As such, we decided to go Rinku Town, which is one stop away from the airport.

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19 Nov 2023 - Osaka Day 10: Shinsekai (新世界)

At about 7pm, we decided to explore Shinsekai area when the entire place was lighted up.

Shinsekai (新世界 or "New World") is a district in Osaka that was developed before the war and then neglected in the decades afterwards.

At the district's center stands Tsutenkaku Tower, the nostalgia-evoking symbol of Shinsekai.

This place is distinguished by Janjan Yokocho Alley shopping street and large retro signboards.

We could see Billiken, which is known as "The God of Things as They Ought to Be", at every corner of Shinsekai.

Initially we intended to have our dinner in one of the many restaurants around.  However, most of them require us to pay a mandatory table fee or starter fee in addition to what we actually wanted to have.  As such, we decided to return to Namba area for our dinner.

We had our first and last meal in Osaka at Yohshinoya, where the food was cheap and good.

We did some shopping along Dotonbori and Shinsaibashi streets on this last night of our trip.

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19 Nov 2023 - Osaka Day 10: Walk, See, Buy, Eat and Drink at Dotonbori

After having so much fun with our Hedgehog "friends", we decided to simply take a relaxed walk around Dotonbori area.

As it was a Sunday, the place was buzzing with people.

When we felt hungry or greedy, we would buy some snacks to eat.

And when we felt tired, we simply hopped into a cafe for some coffee and cakes.  :-)

At about 5pm, we walked back to our hotel for a short break before heading to Shinsekai.

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