07/09/2015

Day 21: Osaka and flight home

Saturday, 26 July 2014

Continues from Day 20: Naruto & Tenjin Matsuri (Osaka) 

This morning was our last in Japan, and this will be a short post as we basically just did some shopping and didn't take any photos.

So, first thing we did was pack up all our bags ready for the plane. We did a bit of that last night actually but most of it, especially my stuff was done this morning.

It takes me ages!

After we'd finished we then checked out of the hotel and left our bags at reception.

First up we went to Daiso to buy some bags as I wanted to buy some things and we didn't have enough room in our suitcases. Our suitcases were only carry on sized and were soon full.

We bought these useful plastic bags from a store near our hotel and then caught a train down to Osaka's Minami or Namba district.

Kate and I split up upon arrival and we agreed to meet back at the Namba Parks department store after a couple of hours.

We came to Namba as I wanted to have a look at Den Den Town which similar to Akihabara in Tokyo as a famous electronics and anime/manga district.

For some reason I wasn't interested in buying lots of books this time, but instead I bought some figurines. This was a bit strange as I've never really been interested in figurines before but I guess I was just happy to see some reasonably priced renditions of some characters I liked.

Anyway, after that we met back up at Namba Parks.

Kate had, among other things, checked out the Department Store's food basement and had bought us some delicious treats!

Basically yummy cakes and such.

After that we more or less made our way to the airport, grabbing our bags from our hotel on the way.

The airport procedures were relatively uneventful. Our last meal in Japan was McDonalds, which has become a tradition as it's the only occasion Kate has fast food.

It's probably worth mentioning that upon arrival in Australia I was deemed suspicious and was one of only a couple selected from the flight to have a full search.

They didn't use any sniffer dogs or anything but just based on the enthusiasm with which I answered the questions at customs.

So this guy took everything of mine apart, he unrolled all my clothing, and checked behind hems and everything. He even commented on the figurines I had bought which was really embarrassing. There’s actually an Australian TV show that films people getting searched by customs, but not at this airport, thank goodness.

At the end another one of the other officers came up to me and said something like "Just out of interest, have you taken drugs overseas?"

Just out of interest, yeah sure. Though I think it's legal to take drugs overseas, as long as you don't import them, so I don’t know what’s up with that.

I said I'd barely even had caffeine or alcohol, which was true, and then I was finally free to go. I found an anxious Kate on the other side of the gate.

Anyway!

That's the end of the 2014 Japan trip!

We had a great time in Japan again, and I hope everyone has enjoyed reading about our adventures!

Hopefully some of the information has been helpful for those planning a trip, if you have any questions please feel free to ask and I'll be happy to try and answer!

The next post is a wrap up similar to what I did for the 2012 and 2013 trip reports.

I'll probably write about our 2015 Japan Trip next!

Yep!

We went back again earlier this year!

Continue to JT4: Introduction and Conclusion

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