Let’s start this retelling of my wonderful 2-week holiday, by saying that I arrived at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 2 around 7 hours before my flight!
I confess I thought I would be able to check in early & just chill in departures, but I got dropped at the airport at midday, my flight is at 7pm and check in doesn’t open until around 4pm. The time I got dropped off wasn’t down to me, but I had hope things could go ok but oh well.
I don’t think Heathrow thought someone would arrive this early because the pre-check-in side of departures was just Cafe Nero & a pub with no free seating anywhere (it was the same for arrivals a floor below). Given by this is an airport around London, buying something to eat or drink wasn’t cheap, so I made sure of getting my money’s worth, especially from a large gin I bought to treat myself.
I must thank my late grandparents for all of this to happen, oh I do miss them, their inheritance contributed so much to this trip, mainly the flights & hotels.
The start of the trip involved a lot of sitting down
- 4 hours before checking in
- 2 ½ hours at the gate in departures before the flight
- 13 hours sitting on a plane
Trust me, I planned on doing so much walking when I got to Osaka, my destination the day after arriving at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, that’s when the trip will properly start.
I haven’t really got anything to really say about regarding the flight to Japan, it was a long flight, but I was thankful I didn’t have anyone sat next to me, so I had some extra free space.
I got to Haneda Airport around 6pm Japan time on Sunday night, I am very thankful that the first hotel I had booked was right next to Domestic Departures, which was perfect as I was flying back the following morning.
Looking back, the first hotel room was the biggest room I had throughout the two weeks, it’s a shame I was only there for a few hours, but it was so worth it.
I was refreshed and ready for my journey to Osaka, check in and security was a breeze and flight itself was nothing as it was only an hour and a half.
When I started to plan the holiday over a year ago, I was debating about getting the train or flying to Osaka and it was so much cheaper to fly. Plus, flying meant I didn’t have to worry about my luggage as it was coming with me.
I arrived in Kansai International Airport in Osaka around 9am and I spent a few hours sorting out the important items of my trip such as pocket Wi-Fi (so I was always connected to the internet on the go, E-sim’s were highly recommended but I only recently upgraded my phone so wasn’t possible), a train ticket for a trip to Fukuoka later on the holiday, a I C card and the 7 Day JR Sanyo Sanin Northern Kyushu Area Pass.
The IC card & the area pass turned out to be the most treasured items throughout the whole holiday but more about that in future posts.
Now I had what I needed for the holiday, it was time to travel to my next hotel, Hotel She Osaka in the Bentencho area.
Only a short visit to drop off my luggage because I wanted to check out Osaka Bay nearby to have something to eat and have a go on the Ferris wheel, which wasn’t something you would miss a few streets away.
I wanted my first afternoon in Japan to be a chill one and I believe I picked the perfect place as I was able to get some cracking views of Osaka on a Monday afternoon from up high, check out some local shops & cafe.
From up high, I was able to see Universal Studio Japan, which I really wanted to do in the afternoon but wasn’t able to get tickets in advance and other factors so seeing it from a distance was the best I could get.
I did have in mind to check out Osaka Aquarium, but I saw the line to buy tickets was huge and I couldn’t be asked to wait for hours, all this chilling passed enough time for check in so after a while I headed back.
I think I will end the post here as I do want to go into the full first day in Osaka, but it has taken longer than I thought to get to this point so you will have to wait for Dotonbori without no tourists, Final Fantasy XIV cafe and everything else in the next post!
Megan Leyman 
Leave a comment