Thailand

After a long flight from Vancouver, we arrived at the Kansai airport in Osaka Japan where we had a 9 hour layover. We were directed past a medical station where infrared cameras check you for fever, and then into a long lineup for immigration. After almost an hour, we finally got to the desk where our fingerprints and photo were taken electronically. Once through, we exchanged $40 cash at the airport but got a really bad rate. And it turned out to be not quite enough to buy 2 round-trip train tickets into the city. So we just bought the one-way tickets at the travel information desk, and hoped to find a better exchange in Osaka. Upon arriving at Namba station, we wandered around till we found the street corner that we recognized from satellite photos on Google Earth.

We walked down a covered street full of shops to get to Dotonbori ave. This area is famous for its restaurants, but few had anything written in English. There were no money exchanges, but we found a convenience store with an ATM that had the Plus logo on it, and were able to get more cash. Though the exchange rate was much better, we had to pay a $5 fee for the international withdrawal.

After eating, we returned to Namba station but entered via a different entrance, resulting in us getting lost in the tunnel system that connects 4 subways and 2 train companies. Once we located the correct train line, we had to figure out the ticket vending machine as nobody at the counter spoke English. By showing our ticket to a security guard we were able to determine which of the 10 tracks our train would arrive on. Finally back to Kansai airport and on to Thailand!