Landing in KIX

My long awaited trip to Osaka finally got realised!!

We took a night flight from KL-LCCT to Kansai International Airport (KIX), which landed before 7am (Japan time) on 29/03/13. Being on a night flight, we slept throughout the entire journey and only woke up right before landing. The Japanese lady next to cuzzie, who spoke good english, was nice enough to talk us about Osaka and sakura. Since she's from Hokkaido, she told us that the best time to visit would be in May/ June, which I hope to do so in future. Based on past experiences and stories from friend's, I've known that Japanese people are very helpful towards tourist. But little did I expect that, we would experience right on the plane itself. Such a nice lady, the first thing she said to us when we landed was "Welcome to Japan! :D".

As with my Air Asia X experience to Haneda in Tokyo, there will be buses to ferry passengers to terminal 1. Really appreciate that because the weather was super cold in the morning. The queue for foreign passports was a little long, but it was all settle in about 40 min. Baggage claim was a breeze.

We then went to the Tourist Information Centre Travel desk, located at 1F, central area, to purchase our train tickets. Unfortunately the unlimited pass for sold out so we only managed to purchase the Osaka Kaiyu ticket for 2550yen, which included an entrance ticket to the Osaka aquarium and  unlimited rides on the Osaka Municipal subway, new tram and buses on the day of travel, which would have otherwise cost 2200yen for admission alone. This pass is still available till 31/03/14. For more info: http://www.f00-020.243.145.203.fs-user.net/language/eng/info/2013_kaiyu_ticket.pdf

Right in front of the Travel desk is the Kansai Tourist Information Centre with lots of travel brochures up for grabs. From here you can get more info on the latest passes/ tickets available too as some of those that I mention here might not be available anymore during your time of travel.

Next, is the Softbank counter as cuzzie wanted to rent a SIM card. The rental for the SIM is at 105yen/ day and if you want unlimited wifi access, that would be 1500yen/ day. I don't think we utilised the wifi at all. Their counter is just right in front of the International Arrival gate. To return the SIM card, you can just drop it off at the little box at their counter even after office hours. For more info, check out Softbank's rental website: http://www.softbank-rental.jp/e/ 

There are many ways to travel to Osaka or nearby cities like Kobe/ Kyoto/ Nara from KIX. Do check out their website for more information: http://www.kansai-airport.or.jp/en/index.asp

We decided on trains because it's one of the cheapest and most convenient. With the Yokoso-Osaka pass that we got for 1500yen, we get a single ride on the Rapid Nankai airport express from KIX to Namba and unlimited rides on the Osaka Municipal subway, new tram and buses on the day of travel. This ticket could be purchased directly at the KIX station. There will be an english translator at the counter for those who could not speak english. No worries for those who could not speak japanese. Info for Yokoso-Osaka pass: http://www.jtbmalaysia.com/user_file/ahq04-hp/etc/yokoso.pdf

To the Nankai express we go~, sampat ppl like me forgot to check the train and seat number, so naturally I sat on someone else's seat. Once at Namba, we changed to subway midosuji line to Umeda because we wanted to get Hankyu  tourist pass and also the Arima-Rokko 1 day pass for our trip to Kobe the next day. Unfortunately for us, the Arima-Rokko 1 day pass was sold out. As for the 2-day Hankyu tourist pass for 1200yen, we were lucky to get it because the sale period was only up to 31/03/13 and valid till 30/04/13, so you might not be able to purchase it anymore. For more details: http://rail.hankyu.co.jp/en/

Since we were already in Umeda, we headed towards the Umeda Visitor's Information Centre to try our luck with the Autumn and winter unlimited pass again and hooray~~ as they still have stock, so we got the 2-day pass for 2700yen. It was almost nearing the end of the sales period (31/03/13) and valid only till 30/04/13. Of course, new passes for 2013 Spring and Summer are now available for sale. Do check out their website, I highly recommend this pass as one can really save a lot with it: http://www.osaka-info.jp/osp/en/

Really happy after all that though we had spent quite a lot because these tickets were like our 'tour packages'. Plus it's a lot cheaper to travel using them than buying tickets individually. 

Of course, these are not the only way to travel around Osaka, just a few that I recommend. Some of the others that are very popular among tourists are:

1) The JR-West Rail Pass (the most common pass and the most convenient I guess as tourists can purchase them in their home country) http://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/travel-information/pass/

2) Kansai Thru Pass http://www.surutto.com/tickets/kansai_thru_english.html

3) Kintetsu Rail Pass http://www.kintetsu.co.jp/foreign/english/index.html

4) and many more from the Hanshin website depending on where you want to travel to http://www.hanshin.co.jp/global/en/ticket/#Surutto

Depending on where you want to travel to, different pass might be more convenient or give more discounts than the other. The most important thing is to do your research first before going~