Japan - Kansai Trip 2013 Sep - Day 1

Second time to Japan. This trip was targeted to Kansai region of Japan. Usually, when people talk about Kansai region, they are talking about the areas include Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe and even further west. In this trip, we were mainly hanging around Osaka and Kyoto. A very different experience than that in Tokyo.

Day 1, we flew from Hong Kong and landed on Kansai International Airport (KIX). Literally, there are 2 international airports in Kansai region. But now, only KIX serve as a real international airport. The other one, Osaka International Airport, is now serving mainly for domestic flights. All right, KIX, it is a top class international airport and is sitting on a separate island. I think it should be an artificial island, similar idea as that of Hong Kong International Airport. Anyway, we landed there. Took Namkai Electric train (南電), headed to our first accommodation that was booked.

We took a fast train of the Nankai main line (南海線), which should be heading to Nambo in Osaka. But we got down at the station Sakai (堺), which our booked accommodation is located.

Sakai is a small and peaceful town which is sitting at a harbour. First thing, checked in the booked hotel. We put down our bags in our room and decided to have a walk nearby. As Sakai is a harbour, we went to the sea side and walk along a promenade. It was a very relaxing walk. There is a statue, light house and some factories. 

It was almost sun set, there were may people having evening walk. We met an uncle, who seems love photographing. As I was taking a camera, he approached us and start talking. We apologized to him that we did not know Japanese well with our limited Japanese. He seems understand, but keep talking to me. I could get the general idea from him, which should be related to which angle, what exactly the time, and what season would give me a magnificent photo. And, he shown me his tablet with photos that he took, also some in printed paper as well. He is such a nice old man and he gave one of his printed masterpiece to me as a present. Really, thanks him so much. This really makes me like this country. And this also makes me love travelling so much.

After sun set, we left the sea side. And walked around to search restaurant for dinner. We ate BBQ and that was very good. Then walked around to help digesting. And we found a small BBQ shop which has 4 seats. Interesting, a very small shop at the ground floor of a small house. Cannot imagine that could be happened in Hong Kong under the current economy environment. Though the picture was not taken in a nice way, do have a look and admire it. :)