Day 2: Arriving to Japan
Posted on March 17, 2023 • 8 minutes • 1597 words
So day two stars with arriving at the airport everything when through pretty seamlessly having already completed my immigration application online before arrival. All I had to do was show them the QR code they had given me and had to go through a few gates to get my photos taken and fingerprint scanned honestly it was quicker than the last time I came to Japan as I had to manually fill in forms when I arrived since I had to fill it all online before arrival they had all the details and the immigration check was quick and easy. As for the customs check I was surprised how quick it was I just had to fill in a form saying I had no prohibited items and after that, I was allowed entry I was honestly surprised they didn’t scan any of my carry-on luggage but aye who am I to judge. Just glad it was quick and easy.
After exiting the airport I ran into my first issue so I didn’t bring any physical cash into Japan as I thought I would be okay with not bringing in cash. Thought I could use my debit cards to purchase an ICOCO IC card to pay for trains little did I know to purchase them I had to use physical cash having no cash on me mean I couldn’t buy the ICOCO card. I only had two options they were to either walk 1 hour to the nearest 7-eleven to withdraw cash and head to the nearest train station or use my JR rail and activate it today. With the closest 7-eleven being an hour away and me having a suitcase I honestly couldn’t be bothered and decided to just activate the JR rail pass today. Thinking about it honestly, it didn’t matter when I activate my JR rail pass as it was either activate it at the start or wait 5 days before activating and since those final 5 days I’ll be in Tokyo didn’t matter if the JR rail pass or not. So honestly wasn’t a major disadvantage activating it today. Now that I’m able to travel around freely it was just a matter of how to withdraw money using my JR rail pass I just head to any 7-eleven shop and was able to find an ATM and easily withdraw my money with my Citibank card. Highly recommend getting a Citibank debit card if you plan on visiting Japan there were no exchange fees and the exchange rate wasn’t that bad honestly probably better than what you’d get for the currency converter places. After having money my next thing to do was try to find a luggage locker so I can store my luggage and go to other places while I wait for check-in to my surprise every luggage locker I saw was completely taken so was forced to carry my luggage everywhere.
End up getting super hungry and walking around trying to decide what the first meal I just concluded it was just easier to just get 7/11 food as I didn’t wanna carry my luggage into a restaurant as that would be super weird. For my first meal in Japan, I got a chicken karaage bento, a strawberry and condensed milk whip cream sandwich and milk tea. The chicken karaage bento was alright it’s honestly what you’d expect the chicken karaage was decent. However, the highlight for me was the Strawberry and condensed milk whip cream sandwich honestly it was an amazing desert if you can even call it that. It was fluffy and sweet and omg I think it was the best strawberry I ever tasted like wow I was blown away. If you’re ever in Japan please get that you’ll be impressed as I was hopefully.
After lunch, I just spent the next couple of hours walking around the Osaka grand plaza nothing really exciting. Was kinda a bummer that I had to carry my luggage everywhere I would have gone to some shops if I weren’t but since I was decided it would look too weird. After walking around for a couple of hours it was finally time to check in my apartment and this was honestly my first interaction with a Japanese person all my previous interactions were super simple pointing and nodding were all I needed. However, this was more complex they started asking questions I didn’t understand it eventually ends up with them doing it for me which make sense but I could feel the frustration of the employee trying to get me to check in to my Airbnb as I was so clueless on what’s going on. The Airbnb was quite nice its what you typically expect from a 1 room apartment everything is cramped in. The good thing is I have a personal bathroom and shower and the space is so well optimised and I actually have a bidet. Honestly trying the bidet idk if I’ll ever get use to it such a weird feeling idk how Japanese people use those things never the less it was pretty cool. Spent the next couple of hours resting trying to get a quick nap before heading into dotonburi.
Heading to dotonburi, I think I got lost multiple times the Japanese train system is so complex there are so many train lines and you have to get to the correct train line. Once you get on the correct train line all trains on that train go to the same stop this is different from here in Australia as each train station has a few train lines and they all share train lines. So you’d have to get the correct platform and correct train but in Japan, some train stations can have like 12 train lines just have to get to your correct train line and you can catch any train which is a big adjustment.
After heading to dotonburi, I did what every tourist do they visit all the food stalls to try the food. The first food stall I tried was a takoyaki place called Takoyaki Doraku Wanaaka Namba. That was an interesting experience it was the first time trying to order in speaking Japanese. I could tell the person know for sure I wasn’t a native Japanese speaker as I was stumbling so hard that he eventually switched to English and I was able to order quite easily. As for how it tasted it was pretty decent better than any takoyaki that I would have had in Australia but idk maybe I had ridiculously high standards for Japanese takoyaki none less I’d still eat it again.
As for the second place I went to a skewer stall honestly couldn’t tell u the name if I knew cause it was all in Japanese. It was pretty decent I had the chicken gizzard for the first time, octopus tentacles and crab stack was pretty happy overall with the choices.
The next place I tried was some melon bread store again I wish I could tell u the name but it was all in Japanese characters so have no clue :(. It tasted amazing and was sweet and tasted similar to melon but sugary the bread was fluffy there is something about Japan and their fluffy bread they really know how to make bread but yeah would recommend it if you ever come across it. Forgot to take a picture of the store if I walk by dotonburi again I’ll defs take an update on this post to include the picture.
The one place I was contemplating going to it was the Kobe beef food stall. They were selling Kobe beef for 5000 yen I knew Kobe beef was expensive but 5000 yen for 80 grams of Kobe beef didn’t feel right to me so I decided against it.
After working around for a solid hour I came across an okonomiyaki place. I heard Osaka heard for its okonomiyaki so I decided to try it. Honestly was quite afraid based on my last experience where we had to cook it ourselves I was frightened so I just went in and sat in front of the grill they came out with the okonomiyaki and put it on the grill I think I sat there for 10 minutes having no clue what to do. Pretty sure an employee noticed and showed me that I didn’t have to do anything since it was already precooked the grill was there just to warm up the okonomiyaki honestly it was a kinda facepalm moment but its good to know some places do it precooked so the customer doesn’t have to do anything. Overall it tasted pretty good I rarely eat okonomiyaki i think the last time I had it was when I was in Japan 5 years ago and it was as good as I remember it.
That end my food adventures I wish I took more pictures of dotonburi but with it raining and I needed to hold my umbrella made it impossible to take my camera out so all I manage to get was photos of food. I’ll try to save some time for dotonburi again for my trip wanna see some famous landmarks I couldn’t find in dotonburi so let’s see if I can squeeze it in. Anyways this ends my first day in Japan tomorrow i’m planning to go to Nara to see the deers and temples. I remember missing out on it last time cause I had no interest in deers so let’s see if my perception changes tomorrow.