Japan Attractions Day 4 - 13th Apr 2009 Shin Osaka – Sapporo

Japan Attractions Day 4 - 13th Apr 2009 Shin Osaka – Sapporo

Japan travel advice:-
With the Japanese rail pass, you can go on a Japan train travel easily and cover an extensive area. Going by the train timetable, Japan has one of the most accurate train timings, thus making it easy to plan your Japan train sightseeing itinerary.

One of the various Japan trains for your train sightseeing

Viainn-Shin Osaka is a business hotel providing Japanese breakfast food. A budget semi double room with full bathroom for 2 persons cost JPY7140 (USD72) nett/night. The room is slightly smaller than Urbain Hotel Hiroshima Executive but pretty similar. Here you also get free internet access and two computers where you can surf the internet in the lobby. With Japanese breakfast food provided, this is good value for money.

The tiny bedroom...

The only disadvantage we found is that the room get a little too warm for our comfort and since the weather can be a little cool at times, the air-conditioning system has not been switched on. Thus, we had to sleep with out windows open to allow the cool breeze in.

Lobby of Via Inn Shin Osaka...

As with Urbain Hiroshima Executive, a humidifier is also provided for your comfort.

A pot to boil water as well as a humidifier

We had a filling breakfast of onigiri (Japanese rice snack formed into triangular or oval shape), buns, salad, yoghurt and miso soup before checking out and as we did not have time to do any Osaka tour, we managed to do some last minute Osaka shopping instead.

Typical breakfast food ... miso soup, salad, onigiri

Breakfast area

Miso soup vending machine...

We then made our way to Osaka Kansai Airport via JR train utilizing our Japanese rail pass for our 1505 hrs flight to New Chitose Sapporo Airport.

JR station at Osaka Kansai Airport

For lunch, we had Japanese style fried rice which cost us JPY500 (USD5) and which tasted pretty good.

Where we had lunch in Kansai Airport

Fried curry rice

Utage China Tower exhibit at Osaka Airport ...

Osaka Kansai Airport, an international airport located on an artificial island in the middle of Osaka Bay

Boarded JL2509 for our hour and a half flight to Sapporo – New Chitose Airport. Retrieved our luggage and caught the 1719 hrs JR train to Sapporo station, a forty minute trip. We then walked for less than ten minutes to our accommodation for the night, Keio Plaza Hotel Sapporo.

Keio Plaza Hotel Sapporo... Bedroom

Writing desk and sofa area

Bathroom area...

After checking in, we had dinner at Akizu, a Japanese restaurant located at basement one of the hotel. Here we experienced Japanese dishes including grilled food, sushi and some Hokkaido specialties served in a Japanese atmosphere. It was a great dining experience.

Tempura

Sushi...

At the sushi counter with the boss

Chef preparing the food upon request...

The various raw food for the sushi