I had promised el niño that I would
take him to the Universal Studios Japan if he did well in his exam. As results
were only released after mid-November (and I had to be sure of his results),
tickets were only bought a couple of days following the release of the result
and as Akak was reluctant to let him go for too long, we compromised on a
5-night trip. Hotel booking was made subsequently before I could plan on the
places to visit. More on that in a separate post.
Thursday, 20 December 2012
After a series of unfortunate events
(which started with my water bottle spilling half of its contents into my bag
and ruining most of everything in it including the novel I specifically set
aside for this trip (Arsenal: The Making of a Modern Superclub), I finally
reached KLIA at 10 pm for our 2350 flight. Akak and family were already there.
I had checked in online and chosen our seats beforehand (and a good thing too
because our pre-assigned seats were far apart from each other as the tickets
were bought separately - mine a normal-priced ticket and his, redeemed from
Enrich points) and after dropping our bags, I tried to choose seats for the
return flight at the counter. Unfortunately, despite waiting for ages for our
number, we couldn’t do it because our tickets were purchased online. Strewth!
It was a full flight and despite
planning to sleep, of course I couldn’t, just as I can never sleep on any
long-distance flights (even on those 24-hour flights to the States). And despite
wanting to watch in-flight movies and play games, sleep came easy to el niño.
How unfair is that???
Friday, 21 December 2012
We got up just before breakfast was
served and performed prayers. We landed on schedule, took the train to the main
terminal and got through immigration quickly enough but our bags took their
time to be loaded on the conveyor so we only emerged out just before 0745. The
lady at the Information Counter told me the next bus to Hotel New Hankyu would
depart at 0805 so I took the opportunity to freshen up first. We bought bus tickets from the vending machine near bus stop no. 5: a return ticket for me at
¥2700 and a single ticket at ¥750 for el niño (there’s no return ticket for
children). Oh and by the way, the definition of child changes depending on
where you buy your ticket from. For Universal Studios Japan, anyone above 12 is
considered an adult. But at some other attractions, a child is anyone up to the
age of 15. Yes, strange, I know.
The trip to Hotel New Hankyu took
slightly more than an hour. It was after all, a working day and we were
entering the city at peak hour. We got down and tried to find our way to the
visitors’ information centre at JR Osaka station to buy the 2-day Osaka unlimited ticket and the Hankyu tourist pass (which we could use on two
non-consecutive days to travel to Kyoto and Kobe). It took a while to get our
bearings and finally we stumbled upon the Hankyu tourist centre, Osaka-Umeda. I bought
two adult Hankyu tourist passes (no child ticket sold) for ¥1200 each. We were
told that we had to find the visitors’ information centre at JR Osaka station
to buy the 2-day unlimited pass. As our bags were weighing us down, we asked
for directions to our hotel too as we wanted to deposit our bags there.
The directions provided proved
accurate and we found our hotel, checking the location against the rather
inadequate map I brought, the area map provided by the tourist centre and also
asking at Sunkus, the convenience store around the corner two blocks from our
hotel. Our bags safely deposited, we headed back to JR Osaka station to find
the visitors’ information centre. This time, we had more problems, no thanks to
wrong directions provided to us by the ticket office and a station inspector.
It was starting to get frustrating and finally we crossed over to Hankyu
building to ask for directions again. They drew out directions again and we
crossed back to JR Osaka station before finally finding the visitors’
information centre. I bought two 2-day Osaka unlimited passes at ¥2700 each. A
bit steep but it provides free entry to quite a few attractions or discounts
off the entrance fees. Oh and by the way, the pass is valid for subways and
buses. You can’t ride the JR trains with it.
We walked to Higashi-Umeda station on
the Tanimachi line and took the subway to Tanimachi 4-chome station and walked
to Osaka Castle. We took the lift up to 5th floor and walked up to the 8th
floor before going down the stairs to the lower levels. You could get a bird’s
eye view of the sprawling city from the observation deck at the 8th floor. The
castle displays the life of Hideyoshi Toyotomi (the man who built that castle)
on the 7th floor, the scenes from the summer war in Osaka (5th floor), artefacts
(3rd and 4th floors) and the castle’s facts and figures on the 2nd floor. We
spent close to two hours here (even performed prayers there) before leaving.
The plan was to catch the Osaka Suijyo Bus (Aqua-Liner) from Osaka-jo Pier but despite our best efforts, we
arrived a couple of minutes late. It was quite a walk from the castle to the
castle gate and to the pier. The boat departs hourly on the hour so we decided
to explore the area.
We located some convenience stores
and went to explore them and left with some packed food to go. Then we went
back to the pier and waited. It turned out that there was quite a crowd also
waiting to board the 3 pm aqua-liner bus. You can check the route here. You can
board the boat at any of the three piers but I decided to maximise our trip and
so boarded it at the first and last pier. Oh, you actually need to exchange
your coupon for a ticket prior to boarding.
It was starting to get dark and
getting rapidly colder (sunset was at 1650 but it was a hazy day so even at 4,
it had started to appear dark). We walked to Tenmabashi station and took the
station back to Higashi-Umeda. From there, we asked for directions to the Umeda
Sky Building at Shin Umeda City as we planned to go to the Floating Garden Observatory. It was a confusing trek and we joined the office workers who just
finished the week at work. It had also started to rain by then so it felt quite
cold.
There was some sort of Christmas
market at Shin Umeda City and we admired the stalls before we went inside the
Umeda Sky Building. El niño had been nursing a headache so we waited a while
and finally he said he would not go up so I went up alone. Well, what I meant is
that I joined a few other people in the lift. We had been observing the lift
earlier and noted that it took about 40 seconds to reach 35th floor from where
we were (I think the lift started at 3rd floor). We had been in the lift for
less than 5 seconds when suddenly the walls cleared and we could see the whole
of the city sprawled out all around us. The lift walls were actually
transparent glass only we didn’t realise it earlier as we were still within the
building before we travelled through the column that makes up the foot of the
building. I experienced a sudden panic attack as I saw the only thing
protecting us from plunging down to our deaths are the transparent/glass walls
of the lift. It’s a bit like those tower rides at theme parks where you go up
and up and up and then plunge down. Of course this one didn’t plunge down but
the feeling as we ascended was the same. I tried to calm myself down, telling
myself the agony would last another 30 seconds or so.
We finally reached 35th floor much to
my relief (although a new panic attack appeared: how on earth was I going to
survive the lift journey back down?). Oh well, I’d worry about it later. I went
around taking photos and then summoned my courage to climb up to the next level
to the open-air observation deck. It wasn’t too scary but the wind was strong
and the rain was still pouring so I walked about 100 metres before turning
around.
I returned to the lift area and
joined a family and some young men. I tried not to look down and was very
relieved when we reached 3rd floor. Told el niño it was a good thing he didn’t
go up for his headache might have intensified. Indeed, I know a friend who had
some health problem after travelling up the elevator at the Petronas Twin
Towers. I can’t recall if it was her blood vessels suffering pressure from the
ride but it was quite serious. And yes, the thought did enter my mind too. What
if...? Thank God nothing untoward happened.
We returned to the hotel and checked
in. El niño had earlier said he wanted to walk around and explore until 10 pm
but because of the early dusk, we felt like it was already late by the time it
turned 8 pm. Indeed, we came back every night around 8 pm and were fighting to
stay awake by 10. And Japan is an hour ahead so we were usually already
sleepy/asleep by 10 pm KL time!
To be continued
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