Day 5: Osaka and Kansai Airport (25/12/04)
This morning was hard to wake up from since we had a late night last nite. Oh and did i mention it was xmas...well not that it felt anything special anyway. Anyhows, we wanted to go to breakfast downstairs at 1F (cos we had a bkfast ticket which lets us choose to eat at 2 places: at the 7th floor besides the swimming pool where we watch some uncles and aunties swimming and is buffet OR go to 1st floor for breakfast). Turned out 1F breakfast was a SET meal!! and since mum is vege for breakfast so we had to go bk to 7F, and actualyl found out that's where everyone was!
Anyhow breakfast was uneventful, and afterwards we went downstairs to meet up the rest of the pple. Cos not everyone was there yet, me and mum got told by the others to go up to 28F to look at the view of the city!
So we went there and initially we only saw pple doing wedding decorations, but then after asking ard we managed to enter the rooms where they were working and take some pictures. The view was great - Osaka looks pretty nice from up top
So we got down and took the bus to Osaka station where we were let free to do some shoppin by ourselves...FINALLY!! Tour guide took us to 漢急, this crappy lookin shoppin centre. I bought a few stationary stuff from there. Then we attempted to walk back to the main station to look for yodobashi, the famous electronic supermarket. On the way we saw this smaller camera store that sold some CF cards ...so i looked at the prices and decided to compare. So after some getting lost and stuff we managed to get to yodobashi - spent ages lookin in there cos its HUGE and there's so many things that interest me!! Like for example, 1F has ALL these Jap cellphones!! Cellphones are quite different in japan cos they'r almost exclusively CDMA network (i think, or is it called PHS like in taiwan) ...anyways, their cellphones are all HUGE!! like HUGE!! no one carries small cellphones. And all the phones on display are all huge too! of cus they would also come wif huge screens too...and i think some of them have 2 megapix cameras too...so they'r more advanced than OUR phones. But they are huge!! most of them are flip-phones too - i didnt' see to many non-flip ones - and most ppl on the street use those huge flipphones too!! So i thot that was quite interesting. I would have tried to spend ages lookin at the phone specs and playing wif them (cos they have power as well so you can actually play!!) if not for my dragging me away....
So we managed to find this girl who speaks good english and she showed me where the battery i wanted is. NICE!! Its funny that the battery i bought for my camera said it was made in china...=.=" but that fits in with the story that the camera shop told me in taiwan when they sold me the camera!! It goes: Canon used to make its batteries in Japan, but now it has totally shifted its battery production to CHINA, so all its batteries are actually made in CHINA. BUT pple who try to make FAKE batteries wana trick pple, so the fake ones actually has MADE IN JAPAN on it, and that is the only difference btw the fake and real ones (cos they look the same otherwise) Oh, and there's the cheap taiwanese brand batteries which is crap and cheap...which i do have 1 off and don't recommend getting. Anyway...I thot that theory was PRETTY good ...but very fallable! i mean - what if they are trying to sell us the FAKE batteries and trying to talk me into believing that the FAKE one is REAL!?! Anyhows - yodobashi is a proper store in japan, huge store and well reputated, so i think i trust the store. Altho the battery it sold looked slightly different to the one i have in my camera ...
That's the thing i HATE abt shoppin in ASIA. i don't know WHEN to shout prices, WHEN they are tricking me...and what to buy cos there is so many variety. And i hate the feeling of being lied to or cheated. It sucks. Totally demoralising - and leaves me feeling foolish and annoyed.
Anyway - after the batteries and stationary in Yodobashi (yes i managed to find some more pens there - altho i only bought highlighter stuff from there...like refills enuff for 2 yrs use?!) we went out again lookin ard. Mum decided she needs to get some food stuff to give away back here and i was lookin again for my jacket. No luck in both till we got to Hanshin (漢神)...just the basement anyway - cos there was MASSIVE food stores there - like HEAPS of stuff!! well not that much but all these jap food delicately package and heaps of pple shopping there. Took us like ages to look thru the shops. The fried prawns and chicken etc looked so nice - which we bought eventually for lunch. Along the underground shopping street we also saw all these nice lookin jap restaurants and we wondered WHY the stupid tour guide never took us to those nice ones - and we always eat at crappy places....what a waste of japanese time...=( anyhows - we looked, and then went on - the underground shopping street is ENDLESS!!! so many shops, such a long street. By then both me and mum were tired from lack of sleep and mum's leg pain, and since time was running out we decided to go back and get the final stuff. Mum wanted to buy this gift box which was 1000yen but we simply coudln't find the same shop again!!! Impossible to navigate. So we ended up getting the gift boxes at one of the kiosks at the railway station - and that was basically timeup!! sucks eh...i didnt get to look for jap anime stuff or get the stationary i want OR get the clothes/shoes i want...oh well - jap stuff is too expensive anyways.
So back to the hotel and to the airport. I pretty much slept the whole way to the airport - was in a daze when i got there. We took a group photo outside the airport, then went to check in.
Had 1hr to shop again inside - so mum bought some wine i think, and some cosmetic stuff. While i went walking ard the airport. Its not actually very ... retail orientated like singapore's changi airport. Not many shops at all. I admit its pretty big - cos it had to be connected using trains - but i don't think its as big as singapore's at all!! stupid tourguide bullshitting again...aii...
Anyhow by the time we got to Gate 51, it was nearly boarding time. There was this group of girls dressed with xmas clothes holding bells - turned out that they were doing a xmas show for us!! nice!! EXCEPT MY CAMERA DECIDED THAT IT HAD ENUFF AND REFUSED TO FOCUS...and has been since then...so i hav no camera to use now...T__T stupid!!! oh well...at least it was the end of the trip already...
Slept the whole way on the plane cos JAA airlines is crappy...altho we got good seats (like front row so we can stretch our legs at least) thanks to my brother's collegue's wife =P
We then took that couple to the MRT station cos they wanted to go to tamshui, and then went to this shop to eat 碗糕 and rice dumpling and oyster noodles....nice!! =) then went home and slept.
So that concludes my japan trip! =)
I guess the last night was the only really interesting time in the whole trip...
Altho i've started to realise...
small trip like that are seriously tiring - cos u don't get to know the pple well enuff...and you are not wif friends - so unless u r a couple or something - it can become so tedious due to the lack of freedom and lack of friends to do enjoyable and crazy things with!!
so I wana go to japan again!! Those interested please raise their hands =P
Anyhow breakfast was uneventful, and afterwards we went downstairs to meet up the rest of the pple. Cos not everyone was there yet, me and mum got told by the others to go up to 28F to look at the view of the city!
So we went there and initially we only saw pple doing wedding decorations, but then after asking ard we managed to enter the rooms where they were working and take some pictures. The view was great - Osaka looks pretty nice from up top
So we got down and took the bus to Osaka station where we were let free to do some shoppin by ourselves...FINALLY!! Tour guide took us to 漢急, this crappy lookin shoppin centre. I bought a few stationary stuff from there. Then we attempted to walk back to the main station to look for yodobashi, the famous electronic supermarket. On the way we saw this smaller camera store that sold some CF cards ...so i looked at the prices and decided to compare. So after some getting lost and stuff we managed to get to yodobashi - spent ages lookin in there cos its HUGE and there's so many things that interest me!! Like for example, 1F has ALL these Jap cellphones!! Cellphones are quite different in japan cos they'r almost exclusively CDMA network (i think, or is it called PHS like in taiwan) ...anyways, their cellphones are all HUGE!! like HUGE!! no one carries small cellphones. And all the phones on display are all huge too! of cus they would also come wif huge screens too...and i think some of them have 2 megapix cameras too...so they'r more advanced than OUR phones. But they are huge!! most of them are flip-phones too - i didnt' see to many non-flip ones - and most ppl on the street use those huge flipphones too!! So i thot that was quite interesting. I would have tried to spend ages lookin at the phone specs and playing wif them (cos they have power as well so you can actually play!!) if not for my dragging me away....
So we managed to find this girl who speaks good english and she showed me where the battery i wanted is. NICE!! Its funny that the battery i bought for my camera said it was made in china...=.=" but that fits in with the story that the camera shop told me in taiwan when they sold me the camera!! It goes: Canon used to make its batteries in Japan, but now it has totally shifted its battery production to CHINA, so all its batteries are actually made in CHINA. BUT pple who try to make FAKE batteries wana trick pple, so the fake ones actually has MADE IN JAPAN on it, and that is the only difference btw the fake and real ones (cos they look the same otherwise) Oh, and there's the cheap taiwanese brand batteries which is crap and cheap...which i do have 1 off and don't recommend getting. Anyway...I thot that theory was PRETTY good ...but very fallable! i mean - what if they are trying to sell us the FAKE batteries and trying to talk me into believing that the FAKE one is REAL!?! Anyhows - yodobashi is a proper store in japan, huge store and well reputated, so i think i trust the store. Altho the battery it sold looked slightly different to the one i have in my camera ...
That's the thing i HATE abt shoppin in ASIA. i don't know WHEN to shout prices, WHEN they are tricking me...and what to buy cos there is so many variety. And i hate the feeling of being lied to or cheated. It sucks. Totally demoralising - and leaves me feeling foolish and annoyed.
Anyway - after the batteries and stationary in Yodobashi (yes i managed to find some more pens there - altho i only bought highlighter stuff from there...like refills enuff for 2 yrs use?!) we went out again lookin ard. Mum decided she needs to get some food stuff to give away back here and i was lookin again for my jacket. No luck in both till we got to Hanshin (漢神)...just the basement anyway - cos there was MASSIVE food stores there - like HEAPS of stuff!! well not that much but all these jap food delicately package and heaps of pple shopping there. Took us like ages to look thru the shops. The fried prawns and chicken etc looked so nice - which we bought eventually for lunch. Along the underground shopping street we also saw all these nice lookin jap restaurants and we wondered WHY the stupid tour guide never took us to those nice ones - and we always eat at crappy places....what a waste of japanese time...=( anyhows - we looked, and then went on - the underground shopping street is ENDLESS!!! so many shops, such a long street. By then both me and mum were tired from lack of sleep and mum's leg pain, and since time was running out we decided to go back and get the final stuff. Mum wanted to buy this gift box which was 1000yen but we simply coudln't find the same shop again!!! Impossible to navigate. So we ended up getting the gift boxes at one of the kiosks at the railway station - and that was basically timeup!! sucks eh...i didnt get to look for jap anime stuff or get the stationary i want OR get the clothes/shoes i want...oh well - jap stuff is too expensive anyways.
So back to the hotel and to the airport. I pretty much slept the whole way to the airport - was in a daze when i got there. We took a group photo outside the airport, then went to check in.
Had 1hr to shop again inside - so mum bought some wine i think, and some cosmetic stuff. While i went walking ard the airport. Its not actually very ... retail orientated like singapore's changi airport. Not many shops at all. I admit its pretty big - cos it had to be connected using trains - but i don't think its as big as singapore's at all!! stupid tourguide bullshitting again...aii...
Anyhow by the time we got to Gate 51, it was nearly boarding time. There was this group of girls dressed with xmas clothes holding bells - turned out that they were doing a xmas show for us!! nice!! EXCEPT MY CAMERA DECIDED THAT IT HAD ENUFF AND REFUSED TO FOCUS...and has been since then...so i hav no camera to use now...T__T stupid!!! oh well...at least it was the end of the trip already...
Slept the whole way on the plane cos JAA airlines is crappy...altho we got good seats (like front row so we can stretch our legs at least) thanks to my brother's collegue's wife =P
We then took that couple to the MRT station cos they wanted to go to tamshui, and then went to this shop to eat 碗糕 and rice dumpling and oyster noodles....nice!! =) then went home and slept.
So that concludes my japan trip! =)
I guess the last night was the only really interesting time in the whole trip...
Altho i've started to realise...
small trip like that are seriously tiring - cos u don't get to know the pple well enuff...and you are not wif friends - so unless u r a couple or something - it can become so tedious due to the lack of freedom and lack of friends to do enjoyable and crazy things with!!
so I wana go to japan again!! Those interested please raise their hands =P
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