Better out than in

Thursday 11 Sep

Customs was very painless at Osaka Airport (KIX) and my case was already on the carousel by the time I got to it, so was quite pleased. I'd travelled in a tracksuit with a neck pillow so they top and the pillow went into the case. It was quite hot and humid even at 8 am and with the laptop and handbag I had enough things to manage.

I found the train station easily and bought a ticket on the express to Namba stations and managed to get on the next one with a few minutes to spare. It was still over 30 mites to the central station even with limited stops.

It is my first time in Japan and the view of the different buildings along the railway tracks gave me my first glimpse at life here.

I arrived at the station with a print out from Google maps showing the walking path to the hotel which was a bout 1 KM away. However it turned out I wasn't quite where I thought I was at the start. A policeman gave me directions and it turned out it was simply heading North to the canal and turning right. I met my first fellow Mensans on the street on the way there, who told me I was on the right track but that we could not check in till 3pm.

Fortunately Christine, a German lady who I had shared a room with in Malaysia, had checked in the day before. She was in the lobby when I arrived and allowed me to store my stuff in her room and most importantly have a shower.

Once I was again part human, 4 of us headed out to Osaka Castle. The other 2 were Fatou, from the Netherlands and Dan from Finland.

Fatou had the subway worked out and after 1 change were were at the Castle. The grounds are impressive and the castle is very beautiful to look at.

We took the tour inside. It is 8 stories and you can get to the 5th in the lift but have to climb the rest of the way up and all the way down on the stairs. At least they have separate sets for up and down. The views from the top are great with a 360 view of the city. That's rather the point of castles in the first place after all.

Inside there were displays about the history of the Castle and Osaka, lineage of the rulers and so forth. Also screens and other bits and pieces but not the furniture and so forth that are often on display in European castles and stately homes. It was a question of really getting into it and reading everything or more or less ignoring it. The one sentence summary "Better from the outside than the inside".

We headed back past the hotel to a different area for shopping and lunch. Shopping wasn't on as we couldn't find any stores of interest and a lot of the shops were shut. We eventually found somewhere to each and bot was that a mistake. I had tempura prawn and scallop which were OK but not much of them. Dan had shrimps and they were tiny. Christine had something that looked like fatty bits of gristle in a watery soup which was supposed to be a stew.  Again - "Better outside then inside"

WE walked back to the hotel stopping for coffee and getting caught in a rainstorm. It was nearly checkin time but the time we got back. I was REALLY annoyed to find I was in a smoking room. I can't believe that's even still allowed and no where in any of the booking info did it mention or ask a preference. No Non-smoking room available since the hotel fully booked.

So ignoring the sign about opening the window, I followed Christine's suggestion and put the air con on full bore.

Once settled in I headed for the hospitality suite, met up with lots of people, registered and got some people playing the COGZ game. We are doing an endorsement deal with the creator and I have a prototype  to show.

The Ice breaker dinner was at the Marriot and was a buffet with dozens of choices - European, roast, pizza and pasta, salad, fish and desert sections. Also drinks were included so I was drinking Pina Coladas.

There was a view over the city lights as well. We finished around 9 and after stooping back at the hotel a groups of us heads to Karaoke. Again great fun and I even sang a few tunes.

Back at the hospitality suite after that and off to bed after 2am.