Day 1-11/12 Arrival in Osaka

Upon arrival, we took it real slow since we had hours to kill before hotel check-in at 4pm.  Brushed our teeth, sorted out what to wear, bought our prepaid IC cards (called ICOCA in Osaka), located and took the train to Namba station. 

Japanese vending machines hehe

Spotted a McD in the station... since JE had it on her list to try, might as well tick it off (hubby was already looking for Japanese food!).  SE had an ebi/shrimp burger while I had teriyaki chicken - nice but no temptation to repeat.

Peeps having McDonald's in Japan

Then we started walking the 15mins to our hotel. The temperature was about 12C, comfortable for me while hubby found it a bit chilly.  It was an easy walk as there were shops most of the way (later on, we would be very used to walks of 15mins!)

See the giant rubber duck? Hehe

We reached Hotel Arashi about 230pm and they said we could check-in.  Super happy!  I had been worried how hubby would hold up.  In fact he'd wanted to book another room so he could rest early.  

I was also anxious we wouldn't like the hotel as it seemed pretty cheap at RM570 a night.  Well, it was really value for money!  Location was great, the room wasn't too small (25 sq m according to the booking) and I loved that the toilet, shower and the bathroom sinks (yes two of them!) were in separate areas.  So up to 4 people could be using the facilities at the same time!  Erm as long as not all 4 needed to poop heh.

Test bed... ok, comfy

A nifty table to put things on

We dimmed the lights and managed to nap, refreshing ourselves enough to go out in the evening.

Besides McD, I didn't have any targetted food places at all.  My plan was simple - when hungry, look around for food. :)  We ended up having premium beef and udon for our first proper meal - very good, one of our best meals of the trip.  SE loved the grated cabbage.

First dinner!

Happy hubby

After dinner we walked around.

Some pretty food

A must-do to take a photo with the Glico running man when in Osaka.

Now everyone knows where we are

Finally, 'collected' our breakfast.  It would be something we looked forward to every night, getting ourselves breakfast mostly from 'kombini'/convenience stores.  Just a sample below - cheese, yogurt drink, milk, gummies, chocolate-filled puff, ham and egg sandwich, cookie, chocolate-covered biscuits, vanilla millecrepe, another cookie, chocolate cake.  Doggy is next to biscuits JE said was cheaper in Japan.

Sample breakfast items

A good first day indeed!