Another trip back to Japan! While I had planned to take a trip there later this year, hitting for tickets to Arashi’s last concert tour in Osaka was definitely not on my bingo card. I didn’t even want to go to Osaka, but I was very happy I made the trip work with my schedule. The added bonus was being able to travel to Shikoku, which is the last of Japan’s four main islands I had yet to visit. 

I really didn’t do a lot of planning on my trip, aside from booking my hotel stays and purchasing museum entrances for Naoshima and the JR Setouchi Pass. The regional pass gave me so much value traveling between Osaka and Matsuyama. The only transportation I had to pay for was my train to and from KIX, the subway in Osaka, the ferry in Naoshima and the trams in Matsuyama. For everything else, I made sure to maximize my use out of the 7-day pass. 

My first day of travels began early in the morning, as I had a 10:00am flight to Vancouver. The flight was delayed by almost 45 minutes and there were people who needed to catch their connecting flight to Beijing in half an hour. I was lucky that all the passengers were considerate in letting them off first, and I also managed to sneak out early as I had my own connection to Osaka. The flights itself were pretty uneventful, but I was happy when I finally landed in Osaka in the afternoon.

It’s been a while since I’ve flown into KIX and I didn’t remember it at all. My first order of business was exchanging my JR pass voucher for an actual ticket. I was looking for a ticket booth when I was directed to go straight to a ticket machine to pick up my pass. It’s definitely the first time I’ve done it through the machine! Later I reloaded my IC card then it was off to Namba via the Nankai Express.

I arrived at my hotel around 6:00pm, quickly dropped off my things, then went back out to get in line at Ajinoya for their okonomiyaki. Honestly the line didn’t look that bad from down the stairs, but it did take almost an hour before I made it inside. However, their okonomiyaki didn’t disappoint and I was happy I got a taste of Osaka on my first day in the city. Later that night I did a bit of shopping, took a bath, then it was straight to bed by 10:30pm to cap off a long day of travels.