Day 1 Caught in the rain

After many sleepless nights these two insomniacs were finally going to Japan. We met at the Cairns international airport in a flurry of excitement,  it was very stressful as I'd done a Web checkin and we just walked through to customs.

Sophie didn't want to use her duty free alcohol allocation so I was able to get presnts for hubstar and sister. After having a blah burger each we boarded and settled in across the aisle from each other.

The flight was smooth we enjoyed several movies and after 7 easy hours were landing in rainy Kanzai. We caught the shuttle to the airport. Getting through customs was a breeze and as we'd only brought hand luggage we were soon up at level 2F getting our train tickets to Namba. Sophie took to using it straight away spotting the station before me. We nipped into a teeny Lawsons to get a teeny umbrella ( we thought they'd be practical for storing) bad choice 🤔.

Once aboard the rapid express train we relaxed for an hour, we were arriving to get seats.  Upon  at Namba we found East Exit after a few tries and were then hit by the onslaught of unrelenting rain. Google maps showed we were a mere 800 metres away.

We trudged forth bravely in the pouring rain 800m probably became a K as we had to do a bit of trial and error with my wet phone. When we found our airbnb there was some consternation as we were at the wrong side.

A kind shopkeeper confirmed we'd found the right spot. There was nothing we could do except bang on the door and wake the folks in 101 to ask how to get to 201. They were good sports and told us we had to walk around.

Luckily Sophie is not a whinger, we were both soaking and in my case my fabric Bali bag hadn't been covered by the umbrella that was made for a 3yr old. Our airbnb was a bit misleading,  as one of the rooms was a tatami room but not made up yet. I  suggested we share the European style room as it had 2 beds. 

Sophie who'd heard about my snoring quickly dragged the other mattress off the bed to the tatami room. After waking my sister Lin at 10.30pm to let her know we were safe and well. I hung up my clothes all over the room. I found a semi dry dress to change into while Sophie chillaxed with some Netflix.

By now we were a bit hungry, actually we were ravenous,  so we set out to find some dinner at was 10pm now. We got a few chicken snacks at Lawsons for 'just in case" and found a little restaurant around the corner.  We'd decided against the Midnight Diner like one, as true to form there was seating for 8 and 6 were smoking.  

We found a very clean upon resto, which once we were in sold no udon but did have scissor chicken on the menu. We each ordered the smashed drumstick and shared edamame, an omelette and house pickles, we mastered the chopsticks. It was 11ish so after a brief sojourn at Lawsons to get a matcha ice cream and a choux puff we were soon home🏡. I tried to keep up with Sophie and watch Netflix on the tiny metal stools but at 26 past midnight I had to call it quits.

Looking forward to a full day in Osaka tomorrow * in my Havianas as my Sketchers are soaked*