Japan - Day 2

This morning we sprung out of bed at the ridiculous time of 4am and walked the short distance to the airport in order to check in for our 6:45am flight. Christchurch totally redeemed itself for the cold and wet welcome we'd received last night, as we were treated to a spectacular sunrise over the very snowy Southern Alps as we took off for Sydney. Our arrival in Sydney was also spectacular. We were an hour early so were forced to circle the airport and we were treated to some fantastic views of the city and the harbour. If we'd been sitting on the other side of the plane we would of missed it all. Just as I was saying how lucky we were to Shanon I looked up and noticed we were sitting in seats A & B. We were supposed to be in E & F. Oops!

After 3 hours wandering Sydney Airport we were finally about to board our flight to Osaka, Japan. I get restless easily so don't enjoy long flights too much, and for some reason I found this trip particularly boring. It was only 9 and a half hours, but it felt like forever. It was so exciting to finally touchdown at Kansai Airport. Japan is an extremely efficient place, and as such we breezed through the airport in record time and were on our way to the airport train station where we were met with an overwhelming amount of maps and ticket machines. Fortunately I'm a girl who does her research and was immediately able to get to the right machine and purchase the right tickets. A nice woman stopped anyway to ask if we needed help, and was more than helpful. Shanon's first impressions of Japan were by now extremely good (for those who don't know, this is my second visit to Japan). A short train ride took us to Izumisano where we made the short walk to our hotel, the Ramada Kansai International Airport. This is a sleepy little area so we enjoyed a nice relaxing stroll to the hotel, with just the occasional car or bicycle passing by. After checking into our hotel it was about 10pm and we were exhausted, but in desperate need of some dinner, so we hit the streets in search of some food. We wandered about for a while, and just as we were about to give up we stumbled upon the welcome sight of a Mister Donut. Back in the room we enjoyed our delicious donuts, and finally climbed into a double bed each to get some much-needed sleep.