The Big day had finally come!! 27 February 2016. It was Saturday and we already prepared to go to airport. We scheduled to meet up before the flight to have dinner in Soekarno Hatta Terminal 3.(excited)
(Jakarta's Crew: L to R: Henry, Me, Robbin, Echa, Vivi)
Every Airasia long haul flight will transit in KLIA 2, and
probably you’ll have to stay overnight there. It is newer and better airport
than the LCCT, but it’s such a pain in the ass when you have to stay overnight
in airport. What can you say, good price comes with good quality, but there are
some tricks to handle it and stay fit for the journey:
- Check the transit airport whether they have a sleeping bench, shower and drinking water. It’s essential to you for keeping you to have a good night sleep in airport. Most airports have a website you can check about their facilities
- Check the hotel inside or nearby the airport. If you are no good with sleeping in bench or carpet, you maybe wanna try inside capsule hotel for travelers, some may be rented for hours. Note: book before you fly
- Check your credit card promotions for free lounges. Lounges sometimes provide travelers with comfy seat and foods
- Bring your armors if you chose to sleep in carpet. Most airports are covered with carpet, so sleeping will probably easier, but probably better if you bring 2 blankets (1 for covering the carpet and 1 for your body since the air conditioner could be colder at night). Beside blanket you might want to have head pillow, eyes cover and some padlocks for your belongings
Some tips if you have to stay overnight in KLIA2:
- Find a working drinking fountain. Some drinking fountains might be out of service but the secret hidden one just near the bathroom across the sama sama hotel was working at that time
- The best sofa is in the cafeteria. They have a long and comfy long sofa for you to lay down, but the numbers are limited to only less than 10 sofas, so be quick and grab one
- The second best sleeping area is in the sport lounge. Sport lounge is located one escalator away from the cafeteria and to the right. This lounge has cushion you can take down for you and it’s plenty
- The third best one is the Movie lounge. Movie lounge has a comfy seat but its cushion can’t be take off
- Lock your valuable things inside your bags and put it close to your head
- Set your alarm at least 2 hours before your flight to be prepared.
Actually during the night I couldn’t sleep at all, I wasn’t
used to sleeping in new place, so I used my ipod and watched our things the
entire night until the sun came out. 6 o’clock in the morning, I already did my
bathroom business and ready to my breakfast in cafeteria. Since I didn’t buy
any meal inside the plane so I had to find some to-go foods for my lunch, and I
found Burger King. Burger was easy to bring, no need to be heated, and quite a
big one!! Don’t forget to bring an empty bottle after the baggage checking and
full it in the drinking fountain near your gate.
(sleepless face and trying to chew breakfast)
8 A.M, all baggage checking counters had already been
passed, bottle fully refilled, lunch packed and just steps away from boarding
gate.Thankfully, my seat was almost in the end of the plane
and next to me was empty seat. I spent 8 hours of flying with dozing off since
I couldn’t sleep the night before. I occasionally woke to check time and ate my
lunch.
(almost landing, inside the Airasia)
15:40ish I finally arrived at the Kansai International Airport or
KIX. I was expecting a dead sheer cold from outside the plane but the airport
was pretty warm because of the heater. The immigration’s line was jam packed with
never ending line, I spent like an hour to reach the gate. Immigration turned
out to be well, my waiver visa was well received, just right after immigration I
grabbed my bags and headed to the wifi routers providers (provided by JR PASS) while
some were looking for a free wifi around japan by the travel japan wifi booth
to set up.
(touched down Kansai Airport)
All clearances were all done, bags were gathered, phone set
up, and wifi router was in our hand, the next thing is to find the JR Office to
exchange my JR Pass booking to the actual working JR Pass. Kansai airport was
totally tourist friendly, signs were all over the places and easy to follow.
Once I had found the JR Railway sign I followed the sign to the second floor
and cross a bridge to the railway station. It was my very first time to feel
the Japan’s winter air, it wasn’t as cold as I imagined, I survived the 16’C
with only 1 thin jackets.
JR Pass office was found, and inside we had to line for
exchanging our JR Pass. Our officer was kinda old and I didn’t expect him to speak English, so I slowly spoke to him with simple English so I could exchange my JR
Pass and book haruka train to Shin-Osaka, he didn’t speak a word but he
completely understood me and everything went well. (fiuh)
The officer in JR office gave me a JR Pass and a ticket for
limited express haruka. When I asked how to use the JR Pass he said just showed
the JR Pass to the officer in the manned gate but the ticket was for an
automatic gate, those double explanation made me confuse. The difference of languages blurred the explanation, the real explanation is if you have the
JR Pass you just have to go to the JR Station manned gate and show your JR
Pass, they will let you through. The ticket itself is for inside the train when
you reserved a seat with seat number and sometimes the officers will ask for
your reserved tickets (reserved ticket costs more than the unreserved, but be
careful not all train has the unreserved seat).
(My JR Pass and Reserved Haruka Limited express to Shin-Osaka)
From KIX to Shin Osaka it took only 30 minutes and Shin
Osaka was a big train station (only 2 stations in Osaka where limited to
Shinkansen). The station was crowded and big so I had a little problem to find
sign to the nearest exit to the hotel. Our hotel was Shin Osaka annex hotel, it
was quite near the station, just 10 minutes walk with baggage. The lobby and
rooms were on the separated buildings, the lobby wasn’t that big but cozy, they
provided us with the Japanese’s warm welcome, hot towel and green tea!! (japanese hospitality, rocks) We reserved for 2 bedrooms, 1 room for boys
with 4 single beds and 1 room for the girls with 3 single room. The size of the
room was adequate for us to move around and put our baggage. As soon as we had
finished up freshening up, we headed back to Shin Osaka station to catch a
train to Dotonburi.
I hadn’t learnt about the jr subway system in Osaka, so I
took a simpler private railway to nankai station (for dotonburi). As I arrived
there I was hit by bright shining neon all over places. It was a car free
street with Robotic and gigantic mascot all around the stores. They have
enormous takoyaki, crabs, okonomiyaki, gyoza and etc mascot to showed what was
their special dishes. I found mostly okonomiyaki and takoyaki, but the variety
of foods was so many, you could easily find sushi, toriyaki, oden, kani, kobe
beef and all kinds of Japanese foods. It was a truly food paradise for us (dayum!), and
our picks of the day:
- Dotonbori a must picture.
(in between Crab store and Starbucks)
- Gyoza. A cheap but the best gyoza I had ever met, 200 yen for 6
(a sip of hot ocha and 6 Pork Gyozas warmed up my tummy)
(the best Gyoza store in Osaka, for me)
- Takoyaki. Kurotako is quite expensive for a takoyaki, 700 yen for 8
(Trying the Takoyaki, it almost tasted the same with the on in Jakarta)
(Left: Oden Store, Right: Kurotako, takoyaki)
- Taking picture in front of the glico neon sign
(Glico Sign, Dotonbori)
(Neon Lights)
(We love doing the crab's pose)
(2 of us were out to look for food, LOL)
- Climbing the namba parks
(Shopping Centre beneath the Namba Park)
(Namba Park, up above the shopping mall, it's like thousand of endless stairs)
- Late Night Dinner
(Gyuniku Donburi, nearby the Shin Osaka Station)
After fulfilling our stomach, we
rushed to catch the last train back to Shin Osaka and hotel, but first stopped
at the Lawson to buy some beers and desserts. I bought a tasty looking dango
and robbed my friend’s kirin sakura beer. The beer didn’t taste like sakura.
(Dango, Japanese Sweet)
(a green tea would be a perfect company for this)
Having 4 persons in 1 bedroom and 1
bathroom was kinda complicated, we had to share the bathroom and go to sleep
early for the next morning.
First day in Japan was beautifully completed, and can't be more excited to face tomorrow adventure.
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