giles Blog 2015

ONWARDS TO OSAKA, JAPAN

We had never been to Japan and this trip gave us the opportunity. In booking our airline tickets on Aeroplan the more obvious choice, Tokyo, was not readily available. However, we did find we could fly to Osaka Japan via Hong Kong and then get home via Seoul, South Korea. This routing also gave us the chance to fly on the massive Airbus 380 and the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

We took a taxi to the airport, the easiest way and not unreasonably priced. Changi airport is rated as one of the best in the world, efficient and with many attractive features. We gave ourselves plenty of time to check in and have a look around. Our plane was waiting for us and we had seats at the rear of the upper deck. This plane really is large and therefore heavy. Being so large the take off run is quite long but it eventually makes it. One very obvious feature is the level of noise, or lack of it. Singapore Airlines is one of the seven 5 star rated airlines and it shows, With fares no different from the competition, it has a class of service far above the norm. They serve very good meals and the flight attendants, always impeccably dressed in long colourful dresses, always seem happy to serve. A great experience and one that you wish might last longer. The flight took us the Hong Kong where we had a change of plane and airline to get us onward to Osaka.

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Singapore Airlines Airbus A380

The connecting airline was All Nippon, another 5 star Japanese airline. They have a modern fleet and we were on a Boeing 767. The service was good but not we felt up to the standard set by Singapore Airlines

All Nippon Boeing 767

On arrival at the airport for Osaka at Kansai we needed to catch a train into the city, about a 45 minutes journey. We had researched how to do this on You Tube where kind people had posted short videos. Osaka has a unified transportation system using a smart card ICOCA similar to Singapore and many of the more advanced cities in the world. One plastic card stores money and you tap the card on a reader that acknowledges where you are getting on and at the end of your travels it deducts the fare. Splendidly simple. Japanese railways has a state owned railway and many privately owned ones. The card works on them all making travel very straightforward. Useful in a country where we had no Japanese language. However, Japan is one foreign country where English is readily available on the trains and the only other foreign language for visitors. We found getting around quite easy. One other feature of the railways is that the trains leave dead on time and arrive dead on time and the drivers all wear white gloves. It was a joy to travel.

We had booked a hotel fairly near the centre of Osaka but near a metro station so getting around was very straightforward. Osaka has a very comprehensive set of metro lines. We had a good guide book and we started our first full day at Osaka Castle rated number 7 of over 500 things to do in Osaka.

The construction of Osaka Castle started in 1593 on the former site of a temple which had been destroyed by thirteen years earlier. The builder intended the castle to become the centre of a new, unified Japan. It was the largest castle at the time. Over the years it was destroyed, burnt down, rebuilt and renovated until today it is in very fine shape. It sits in large grounds inside a moat

The moat around the castle grounds

Osaka castle

View of Osaka from the top of the castle

A scary warrior

More of the moat

Outside the grounds there is one of a number of canals that run through Osaka and our guide book had suggested taking a trip along one of them. There are many low bridges and the boats are very low like those in Amsterdam and Paris.

The canal boat

On board

After we left the boat where we had started we walked back into the beautiful castle grounds to get to the Osaka Museum of History. The exhibits chronicle the city's history, beginning in ancient times when Osaka served as Japan's first capital and ending with exhibits on the modern day bustling city.