The transport system in Japan is superb. The subway trains are very frequent, very punctual, and very heavily used. The few times I’ve caught a train so far, I’ve not waited more than 4 minutes; and these were not peak-hour times. Getting a ticket is fast and simple too, at least once you realize how it works.
It’s been nearly a week here now and we’re getting into a bit of a routine. There are some nice restaurants around, we’ve managed to eat nice meals for about 500-600円, although it’s a bit hard to tell what you are actually eating. It still continues to suprise me how cheap things are compared to Australia.
So this morning I ventured out in search of breakfast. It was cold and a few people were setting up shops and stuff. Everything seems to open a little later in the morning, it was nearly 9am and most stores were closed.
Yesterday we did a big walk around Osaka, from our hotel, up past Tennoji Park, and through Shin-Sekai to Namba. The first thing you notice around is how incredibly dense the city is. Every street and alley is packed with shops. Noodle bars, Cafes, and Pachinko. There are pachinko places just everywhere, it’s crazy. Most of the pachinko places have arcades too, and seem to have a bunch of people in there pretty much all the time. The arcade games are about 50円 or 100円 to play, which is fairly cheap.
Last night we arrived in Osaka, about 8pm. Getting out of immigration and customs was a pretty painless process. The airport was fairly quiet and coming outside it was a nice, cool, 4C. Yay! After a few warm and humid nights in Brisbane this was a welcome change.
