DAY 1
KANSAI AIRPORT – RINKU PREMIUM OUTLET – KANSAI AIRPORT – OSAKA TOWN
Reached Kansai Airport, proceed to JR office and purchase the JR-West Rail Pass, note that you need to show your passport for getting this pass as the pass is only available for foreign visitors. This is the amazing JR-West Rail Pass which covers the whole Kansai Area, as you can see from the train map, it cover all of the major station such as Kyoto, Nara, Kobe and to Himeji, most importantly, it covers the Airport Express Train as well!
After purchased the JR West Rail Pass, I store my luggage in the baggage storage (check here for list of baggage storage location in Kansai Airport) and I took the shuttle bus from Kansai Airport to Rinku Premium Outlet. The reason why I’m doing this is because Rinku Premium Outlet is only approx. 20 minutes away from Kansai Airport and the shuttle bus cost only $100yen/way. Click here for the other transportation/directions to Rinku Premium Outlet. The shuttle bus from Kansai Airport is available from 9:40 to 19:10, click here for more accurate timetable.
Rinku Premium Outlet is worth visiting if you’re looking for branded items but not probably not the latest collection, the price is good as compared to those you can find in normal retail shops. Looking for G-Shock or Air Jordan like me? You can find some in Rinku Premium Outlet but you definitely can’t get the popular collection. I saw Air Jordan 3 Son of Mars black/green selling at about $10,450yen.
After returned from Rinku Premium Outlet, collect my pre-booked ‘Wifi-to-go‘ (click to find out what is wifi-to-go) from Airport Post Office and finally heading to my guesthouse in Osaka town.
Osaka – J-Hoppers Hostel, there’s a very clear direction on how to get to the hostel, and the hostel is quite near to Fukushima Station, there’s a 7-11 just right next to the hostel, one good thing about Fukushima station is that the station is not as busy as the popular Namba Station, which means it’s good if you’re carrying big luggage bag you don’t have to worry about the crowd.
This is how the JR Kansai Wide Area railway map looks like!! But don’t worry, what you really need to understand and learn about is the Osaka Loop Line and you’ll eventually learn about the operation of the train and line, there’ll be a big digital board in each station where you get to see which train is coming next and how many minutes left for which train to arrive.
WARNING: All of the transportation timetable given in Japan is VERY ACCURATE!! So please be punctual!!
After checked in hostel, I took the booklet/brochures from hostel and start throwing questions at the hostel’s receptionist about places to visit and where to get good food. Then explore around Namba area and grabbed my dinner. The end of the day.
NOTE: There’s a vending machine inside the hostel which selling beer, so that’s pretty convenient!! Anyway, there’s a lot of different vending machines all around the street or district in Japan, so whenever you’re thirsty, you can coined in $100 yen and get a hot or cold drink!
