Memoirs of Nippon (9)

Rinku Town is a dangerous place, let me correct it, dangerous for the wallet! The Rinku Premium Outlet has 210 stores, you simply won't be able to see them in a day!!! This little gem is right across the Kansai airport, and to take advantage of the shopping before I headed home, I was staying at the Star Gate Hotel right besides it! They do free airport shuttle in the morning, so "delivery" of my shopping loots home yea!

In fact, Rinku Town is very pretty. Look at the picture on the left. That was taken near the bridge linked to the outlet malls, so in the picture is part of Rinku Pleasure Town Seacle and behind that is my hotel. Rinku Pleasure Town Seacle is a mall itself, I only went to a few shops as I didn't have time. Some very cool, especially one selling handmade stuff from India, another selling San-X products (Sentimental Circus)... Love them!  There are two sides of the premium outlet, one on each side of the road! In the next picture (below), I'm showing you one of the sides.

Before arriving, I had spent hours looking up on the list of stores and because there are 210... and I barely had half a day, so I shortlisted about 30-40 I wanted to see. I picked mostly Japanese brands as the American ones I had seen them back in Las Vegas outlet and probably they wouldn't be as cheap as America. So that was a lot of quality shopping for me, I found a few good buys. It was almost like a marathon, I kept having to time myself at each shop, just to make sure I had enough time to see the next one. Hahaha. Shopping can be really stressful too. I managed to sneak in a meal time at Bagel & Bagel and it was the most delicious one ever. I had the cheese bagel, with some kind of smoked ham (I can't read Japanese so I didn't know what that was called).

I finally called it a day at 740pm. They closed at 8pm! I got 2 bags from Beam, a Marc Jacobs pouch, a watch, a dress, a top and some miscellaneous items. That already costed me a few hundreds (S$).

The ferris wheel had lit up in the dark sky. Then I rushed off to find a convenience store which was open till late to get some snacks and things my cousin had requested me to buy home. I walked back hungry but with a satisfied smile on my face. It was my last night in Japan, I couldn't help but felt a tinge of sadness.

As I arrived earlier than the check-in time, my luggage was brought up to an assigned room for me. I was on the 39th floor, a corner room. I didn't know why but I felt uneasy in the room and I was whatsapping my friends on how freaky it was! LOL. After calming my nerves, I had a quick shower and went to bed. When it was daylight, I felt safer and spent the whole morning packing all the loots. It was drizzling that morning, Japan must have felt sad for me to leave too! I almost missed the time for my shuttle as I was packing down to the very last 5 minutes before the shuttle. HA! Then I ran down, check-out was a breeze and then the bus was there just in time.

Of course I came back with an additional carry-on luggage! Malaysia Airlines gave me 30kg allowance anyway, so I was pretty sure I hadn't exceeded. The queues at both the check-in and departure gate were madness, please please do online check-in next time (a reminder to self)!!! I did some more last minute souvenir shopping at the airport, and now I wish I had bought more green tea dango!

On the flight back, the service was much better than on the way there. I supposed it was the stewards and stewardesses too. I was watching "The Impossible", about the tsunami in Phuket some years back. At the same time, there was a bad turbulence going on, I felt so sick that I threw up! First time ever I used that air sickness bag in front of the seat!! I had to pause the movie to go to sleep before watching it again! I sat besides a guy from Hiroshima whose on his way to Kuala Lumpur for business, he was very humble and polite and we had a short conversation.

I had a short transit in Kuala Lumpur and now I know why Changi Airport is the best. It was so warm there, almost like they did not turn on the air-con! Worst of all, it was so BORING there, so I bought myself tea and muffin (worst muffin ever) at the Harrods Cafe. After which, I sat at the boarding gate, wishing I could fly home sooner!

Drizzle welcomed me home again. That marked the end of my first Japan trip but I knew I will be going back again. Missing all the people I met and food I had... Even at this moment I'm writing, it still brings back lots of good memories!