In Black And White: Japan-Kansai Trip 2016

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Japan-Kansai Trip 2016 - Day 1

Every year around CNY we will make use of the extended holidays to take a long holiday. So far for the past 2 years we have chosen Hokkaido, but this year the missus decided it's time to break away from that routine and go to Kansai instead.

An overnight flight to Haneda, transit to Kansai airport, just because direct flights were either full or exorbitantly expensive.

I had been sick the week prior to the trip. In fact I was still very sick prior to the flight but adrenaline somehow took over and I sort of revived once we landed in Japan.

Unfortunately my wife was left with the task of packing and preparing for all of us and left out the international driving license. That meant our initial plans to drive around Kansai had to be changed into one reliant on the rail network.

Upon recovering from the shock, first we cancelled our car booking, before checking the routes available to us. Nanki-Shirahama was so far South that it wasn't shown on the rail network map. Nothing a bit of Internet couldn't fix. 2 changes of the ride and we were on the Kuroshio rapid to Shirahama.

The overnight flight, transit flight from Haneda and multiple train rides finally took its toil on J and he basically shut down his engine while on the 2-hour ride..

At the end of the 3-hour or so journey was a wonderful seaside town with a very different look and feel from Osaka, Nara or Kyoto.

We first made our way to the Toretore market to enjoy a good afternoon sashimi and outdoor BBQ seafood lunch.

After lunch we took a taxi to our hotel, which overlooks the famous Shirahama beach.

We took a little walk on the beach as there was a bit of time before check-in. The wind was piercing cold but the sand was wonderful. I could imagine what the place would look like in summer.

After a 10-15 minutes walk we were both cold and tired so we tried our luck at the hotel even though it was only 2:30pm. Thank goodness for Japanese hospitality and we were lead to our room.