All you need to know about landing at Osaka’s busy Kansai International Airport, getting out, and the best transport cards for long-term travel through Japan.
After 3 years of no overseas travel mainly due to COVID-19, the 2-year sojourn from Australia begins with 4 nights in Singapore. Then, continues with landing in Osaka to start exploring Japan for 7 weeks. Although without a real plan or schedule and instead, booking everything along the way, travelling is going to be epic!
Where is Osaka?
Located on Japan’s densely populated main island of Honshu, Osaka sits roughly in the centre and in the Kansai region.
As the 10th-largest urban area in the world, Osaka is Japan’s second-largest metropolitan area with Tokyo the first.
Getting there
In March 2023, the cheapest flight from Singapore to Osaka is on the brightly-coloured low-cost Scoot Airline.
As you need proof of onward travel when landing in Japan, we also booked the exit ticket to Stockholm. This is the next destination after 7 weeks in Japan. Planning this far ahead is not always ideal but sometimes, you have no option.
Singapore to Osaka is a 6.5-hour flight, so purchasing a meal on Scoot is wise. However, as the meal wasn’t great and not worth the money, it’s best to take your own food.
The descent across Osaka Bay is picturesque but with the immediate scenery quite flat and mountains in the distance.
It’s always exciting and a real buzz landing in a new country, especially after several years of not travelling.
Scoot flight attendants are very accommodating and fun, providing great service with a smile. Adding a touch of difference from other airline companies, even colourful lights come to life in the cabin marking the end of the flight.
Ordering a Snack Pack “meal” online by mistake when booking the flight, the meal is disappointing. Containing only a can of drink, small bottled water, peanuts, biscuits, and a small chocolate bar, the snack pack is marginally worse than the other pre-ordered average-tasting hot meal.
Dissarray at Osaka’s Kansai International Airport (KIX)
Arriving half an hour late at Osaka’s Kansai International Airport, one of Japan’s largest and busiest airports, we taxied into Terminal 2, which is where low-cost airlines arrive.
Shunted into a long queue, it’s chaos. Spending the last four nights in orderly Singapore and leaving from organised Changi Airport, Kansai Airport’s confused state is a stark contrast.
Airport staff holding up multiple signs everywhere direct passengers in Japanese through the long airport walkway, around numerous corners, and down separate queues. The wrong queue it turns out because if you have a COVID-19 vaccination certificate, this fast-tracks the process and queues.
Without much English, it’s disorderly and a mess as most passengers are non-Japanese speaking foreigners. We wait in line for 1.5 hours just to be told that because we have the correct certificates, we are in the wrong queue. Not wanting to join a shorter line to wait again after the already long wait, reluctantly, the officer enters our details into her computer. Poorly organised and badly communicated, and this was just to clear immigration.
Collecting our backpacks and walking through customs is a breeze in comparison to immigration – a pleasant surprise. As Kansai Airport is located on a man-made island around 40 kilometres south of Osaka, taking a train is one of the cheapest ways to get to Osaka. Scoot arrives at Terminal 2, so you need to take the unmanned train shuttle to Kansai Airport Station, which is next to Terminal 1.
Transport out of Kansai International Airport
As the booked apartment is in the Kita (Umeda) Ward, the train on Platform 3 from Kansai leaves for Osaka every 30 minutes with this journey taking around one hour and 10 minutes.
Unfortunately, an international Mastercard is not accepted to buy tickets (¥1,210) for the train journey to Osaka’s Fukushima Ward (a short walk from the Umeda hotel). Only cash is accepted.
With the flight arriving late, delay at immigration then missing the train, it’s almost 8 pm, but the train is still packed with office commuters.
Criss-crossing multiple rivers and bridges, we arrive at the hotel later than expected.
What card is best for travel in Japan?
This is a good time to talk about Japan’s travel cards and this section will help you to decide which travel card is best suited during your stay in Japan. The length of stay and where you are travelling in Japan dictates the type of transport card to buy as getting around Japan can be pricey. Especially, if using the popular Shinkansen (Bullet) trains.
IC Cards
In 2023, ten types of IC cards are available. These are rechargeable cards (by cash only) to pay for fares on public transportation. You can also use these cards to pay in many vending machines, restaurants, and shops by touching the card on a reader for about one second.
Check this Japan Guide for full details and the fine print as of course, each card has limitations. Including, which type of transport a card can and cannot be used in Japan, but also, throughout the different regions and islands of Japan.
Japan Rail (JR) Pass
In addition to these IC Cards is the favourable JR Rail Pass, which only foreign tourists can purchase.
With the JR Rail Pass, you can take unlimited rides on JR trains, certain Shinkansen trains, and JR buses during the pass’s time frame, but on certain lines. There is always a catch and not every card allows you on every type of transport to everywhere in Japan.
One downside to the JR Rail Pass is the time restriction. A pass lasts for 7, 14, or 21 consecutive days and as soon as you use the pass for a journey, the clock starts ticking. So, you feel as though you need to use the pass every day to make it worthwhile.
So, which card?
For long-term travel of 7 weeks, we opted for ICOCA cards, followed by a Suica card when one ICOCA card was accidentally lost.
These cards turned out to be the most beneficial for longer travel through Japan because you can top us as you go and don’t feel as though you’re wasting a day of travel. The recharge machines are at every train station, most 7/11 convenience stores, and most bus stations.
You can also print a history transaction summary of your travel trips including trip costs at the vending machines. These are very efficient cards. However, certain regional lines and some buses do not accept any cards. For these journeys, you need to buy separate tickets at a station’s machine or a ticket booth. Most recharge machines include English.
Buying the ICOCA card for ¥2,000 at the Umeda (main Osaka) railway station’s machine with cash only includes a ¥500 refundable deposit when returning the card, but in Osaka only. Check the Osaka Metro map for train route details.
Where to eat and sleep
Osaka offers a plethora of amazing restaurants, huge supermarkets, undercover markets and food avenues, and cosy tiny street stalls, but so much more. Osaka really is food heaven.
Check back next week for a detailed post on where to eat and sleep during your stay in Osaka, to help you stick to your budget and make your cash go further…
Visit Nilla’s Photography for more global images. More posts at Image Earth Travel.
Note: All photos by Nilla’s Photography unless otherwise mentioned. No part of this post was composed with the help of ChatGPT or AI.
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