RINKUTOWN PREMIUM OUTLET
Today, we will be saying goodbye to the city of Osaka. What?! 9 days has passed?! Just like that?! Time passes so quickly when you are having a good time. How true.
We will check out from Hotel Monterey Grasmere Osaka and check in to another hotel near to Kansai Airport.
Folks who know me well will probably be puzzled by this choice as I'm someone who does not like to change hotels frequently on a trip - very tiring to unpack and pack numerous times!
So there must be valid reasons for this choice.
Well, Daddy will be leaving us at Kansai to meet up with his colleagues for their company trip. So, I'm tasked to fly back to Singapore with the princess by myself. As I've never done this solo flying with the princess before, I'm in fact a little nervous and apprehensive about it. So in order to ease my anxiety a little, I've decided to stay nearer to the airport so that I don't have to struggle with luggage, child tantrums (if any) and morning traffic on my departure day. Plus, there is a premium outlet located near the airport. So why not?!
We checked out from Hotel Monterey Grasmere Osaka and left our luggage with the concierge. While I brought the princess with me for a breakfast date with a long time friend, Daddy went for his electronic gadget shopping.
Breakfast was a humble McDonald's meal near the hotel. While I was busy catching up with my friend (we haven't seen each other in person for nearly 20 years!), the princess amused herself with my phone by taking her selfie and some other "artistic" shots and I must admit she's pretty good with it.
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| Selfie time! |
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| Maybe I will look better with hair band |
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| And when she got bored of taking her selfie, she started to take pictures of anything else |
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| Her "companions" for the trip |
After breakfast, we popped over to the OCAT counter to buy our shuttle bus tickets to Kansai airport in advance and did some last minute shopping at Daiso. We then headed back to the hotel to meet up with Daddy, picked up our luggage and proceeded to take the shuttle bus.
The one hour ride had all of us snoozing in comfort and we arrived at Kansai airport just in time to check in to the airport hotel. Finding our way to the airport hotel was relatively easy as there were many clearly marked signs.
The check-in at Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport was fast and efficient. The room was slightly spacious compared to a typical Japanese size but the bed was so miserably small even though we requested for a King bed. It didn't even look anywhere near a Queen-size bed. So the 3 of us had a "cosy" time cuddling close to each other. What impressed me the most is the purifier/humidifier in the room - wow - time to say goodbye to static electricity!
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| The cute children bedroom slippers |
After dropping our luggage in our rooms, we went to do our favourite activity - S.H.O.P.P.I.N.G!! Wooohoo!
Rinkutown premium outlet is located just across Kansai International Airport. With over 200 shops, there is definitely something for everyone. The structure and ambience made me feel like I'm back to Gilroy. However, the sizes offered at Rinkutown are catered to Asian, so I still missed shopping in America!
We took a shuttle bus from the airport which took us about 15 minutes. While waiting in line, I was puzzled by dozens of foreigners (ok well I'm also a foreigner) carrying oversized luggage and loading them in the bus cargo hold. I couldn't understand why anyone would want to drag a luggage for shopping - wouldn't it be a hindrance?
Oh my! I was proven wrong. After much observation, I realised this group of people may be shopping on someone else's behalf - they will park their luggage in a systematic order outside the store, go into the store, check with the store assistant on a specific model and size and pay up. After payment, they will dispose the store's shopping bag and pack the purchases directly into the luggage. Now I know why they need to bring the luggage! I also saw some of them leaving the luggage in the locker. After buying all the required goods, they come back to "pack" into the luggage. Thus, the area near the locker was littered with large amount of trash with the helpless cleaner.
My first hand encounter with this new "shopping experience", I was a little baffled and amused by the whole scenario while my other half seemed to have "seen it all" and brushed it off with a shrug.
After our late lunch at the food court, we set off on our retail therapy! There were simply too many shops and too little time here! As we didn't want to miss the last bus back, we gave ourselves a mere 3 hours to complete this intensive shopping mission. The prices were only slightly cheaper (after tax deductions) if compared with Singapore but lost hands down if compared with America. For me, I'm just happy to buy my favourite sneakers.
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| Need to feed ourselves well first |
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| Namaste! |
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| At my favourite store |
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| Ice cream time! |
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| Finally had matcha ice cream |
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| So near..... yet so far....... |
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| Heading out for dinner |
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| Bought this dessert from the convenience store Isn't it too cute!? |
Back in the room, we watched with much reluctance as Daddy packed for his company trip. He will be leaving us at Kansai tomorrow.
<--- Japan Trip 2018 - Day 9 Japan Trip 2018 - Day 11 --->
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