Japan trip, My first day in Osaka

This trip was a few years ago, but before I went to Japan I just loved reading blogs about other travelers' trips to Japan. Actually, I always love reading blogs about the destinations I will visit soon. That's why I thought it would be nice to post my story about Japan, for others out there still planning to go or enjoying post-travel-reads ;)

In June 2011 I travelled with a friend of mine to Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo.
Our first stop was Osaka to which we flew directly from Amsterdam.
The fun started as soon as we landed. We had to go through a baggage check but to our surprise the guy who checked our bags came behind from his counter just to lift our bags on the counter, neatly checked and packed our bags again and then popped from his counter to take our bags from the counter for us, all while staying extremely friendly and polite. It was our first encounter with Japanese friendliness and politeness, and set the tone for the rest of our trip.

View from the plane

After a sleepy trip with the subway through a nice sneery of Japanese homes and rice paddies we arrived in the centre of Osaka.
When we stepped out of the station we were met with massive tv screens on buildings (something we'd never really seen), traffic that rode on the left side of the road and a lot of noises and sounds everywhere. It was a little bit overwhelming but not in a bad way. We dropped our stuff at our hotel and went sightseeing because we still had a full day ahead of us.

typical Japanese street with many neon signs

going on a boat ride!

Our first stop in Osaka was a river cruise. It seemed like a nice way to make ourselves familiar with the sights of Osaka. We didn't see much of the cruise though..... because we were beleaguered by a big group of Japanese students. When you go to Japan this will happen from time to time, but this was a whole different level ! It was great! The kids were sitting behind us in the boat and were about 12ish years old. Their English wasn't smashing, but the best we encountered during our whole trip (to our surprise). With my few words of Japanese and a lot of sign language we had a very very amusing hourlong boat ride. One of their teachers asked us for a group picture which we obviously accepted and we asked for our own too.

After this memorable moment we stopped by at the 7/11 for food and drinks because we weren't hungry or energetic enough to go somewhere for dinner.
In the hotel a girl dressed in a kimono showed us our room and made us some tea. I really love this Japanese attentiveness. And the room was just amazing! From the outside the hotel doesn't look impressive but the rooms are in traditional Japanese style with modern conveniences and it's just the right mix of old en new. While we enjoyed the tea and snacks that were also provided an old man knocked on our door and asked us when we would like our beds to be prepared. Japanese style futon beds need to be unfolded and put on the tatami floor and the lovely staff does this for you. We talked with the old man for a while and he knew some Dutch words which was really cute.

Since the man would be in our room at 7PM to prepare we decided to go out and explore the area. We had been in Japan only for a few hours and already we encountered a tv crew interviewing us, the problem was they spoke zero English and I spoke almost no Japanese so we didn't understand why they were interviewing us or about what .... It was really awkward but funny.
After that we went to a place with many girly clothing shops and it was like clothes heaven! (Even though I don't fit most of it, it is still nice for style inspiration). The girls working in the shops are really fashionable and everything from nails to hair to makeup matches their style. Some are snobby but there ware also many girls of the staff trying to chat with us despite their limited English and were really sweet. But the jetlag and tiredness really started to kick in and we both felt unwell so we headed back early.
Sleeping in the futons took some getting used to, but it was very comfy and I loved the traditional experience.

Some notes;

• Japanese people are so helpful, like the counter-guy at the airport or when we were looking for our hotel and within seconds a guy came up to us to help (even though he didn't know English haha)
• 7/11's are awesome and the Netherlands need to build them too.
• Japanese kids are cute and wear cute matching hats when on excursion
• Traditional style Japanese rooms are a must try!! Futons are comfortable :)
• Clothes shops in Japan are gorgeous (decoration, staff, the clothes) but not plus-size friendly
• Shop staff will welcome you with a heartily 'Irasshaimase' and make you feel like a king/queen
• The metro and trains are scary (at first) but incredibly convenient and punctual