After settling our storage problems at the airport, we took the train to Rinku Premium Outlet, is one station away from Kansai International Airport. It is only about 6 mins ride away or take the shuttle bus from the airport to Rinku Premium Oulet about 20 mins ride. (Look at the bus time schedule).
Read more about the transportation to and fro from out parts of Osaka to Rinku Premium Outlet from the official website.
Once out of the train station at Rinku, there's sign to direct us to Rinku Premium Outlet and saw a shop offering storage facilities and is cheaper than at the airport but left not many spots. I saw many tourists did not even bother to store their luggages, they just drag along whereever they shop hahaha but then we are only 2 of us with more than 2 luggages, so is a bit difficult for us to try our luck to store our luggages at Rinku first, so we play the safe mode by storing at the airport with more storage facilities.
The premium outlet is just behind the ferris wheel, so just walked towards the ferris wheel and look out for signs to direct the way to premium outlet.
Not everything is expensive here, saw many children clothes way below S$10, bought some for my grandnephew and grandniece.
Please note not all the branded stuff are made in Japan, most are made from China, Vietnam, Thailand, etc.
Had our tea break at one of the coffee house, nice bread and good cozy place to rest our tired legs.
Satisfied with our shopping and well spend time before checking in for our very late flight, we made our way back to Kansai International Airport.
From here, it does not make any differences to take either the airport express or local train cause only one train station away for either train.
Had a nice chinese dinner at 551 Horai Restaurant at Kansai International Airport, I remember I took some photos but I cant find them in my files, not sure if I have accidentally deleted them in my handphone.
From our hotel, we made our way to Namba Station to take the airport express train to Kansai International Airport. There are few ways to travel from Namba Train Station to Kansai International Airport.
By Nankai Railways
Direct, 35-50 minutes, 920-1430 yen one way to Namba Station, frequent departures
"Rapit" limited express trains take about 35 minutes and cost 1430 yen (all reserved) from Kansai Airport to Namba Station, while express trains do the same trip in about 45 minutes and for 920 yen. Those transferring to a subway line at Namba Station should consider the "Kanku Chikatoku Ticket" which combines the Nankai train ride from Kansai Airport to Namba Station and a subway journey from Namba Station to any subway station within Osaka for only 1000 yen one way. The ticket is also available for travel in the opposite direction.
Read other mode of transportation to the airport from source.
Of course, we choose to go to the airport via Nankai Railways airport express train which costs only 920 yen and travelling time is 45 minutes. It does not comes with reserved seats but no problem getting seats as Namba Train Station is the terminal. For those who prefer the Rapit limited express train, it comes with reserved seats for all the cabins but cost 1430 yen and only faster by about 10 minutes from the airport express train.
We can still use our IC(ICOCA Card) and tap at the gantry gate and enter into the platform.
Look at the above information board, our airport express is at Platform 6, we quickly made our way to the platform and train.
The train does not come with reserved seats but as Namba Station is the terminal, no problem getting seats unless is peak season.
The next platform is the Rapit Limited Express Train. The whole train is reserved seating and it really looks cozy.
As our flight is near midnight, we have half a day to shop around. We decided to go to Rinku Premiun Outlet which is one train station before Kansai International Airport but we decided to place keep our luggages at the airport rather than at Rinku Premiun Outlet cause there seems to have lesser lockers at the outlet than airport, also cause we need three lockers hahaha.
The storage fee at the airport train station costs more than at the storage in the airport itself but we were too lazy to go all the way to the airport, we just keep our luggages at the lockers near the train station. I think it costs us around 700 yen per locker for huge luggage, I cannot remember the smaller locker fee. The storage facilities in the airport cost lesser. You can read from the official website.
After keeping our luggages in the lockers, we took the train again and alight one station away at Rinku Premiun Outlet. (Will talk more about the outlet in next post.)
Our last day in Osaka, we need to check out of hotel by 10 am, (as with most Japanese Hotel,late check in and early check out).
As usual, the morning buffet breakfast menu is almost the same, hahaha, we had the Japanese curry for the four morning breakfast daily.
After breakfast, we checked out of hotel but left our luggages with the reception and planned to collect them after our lunch. Our flight is near midnight, so we had almost a full day to do some last minute shopping and happy eating. So I planned the last morning to visit Kuromon Market which is near our hotel and we can come back collect our luggages easily. Kuromon Market is only one subway station away from our hotel.
We took the subway and alight at Nipponbashi station. From the signboard, we should exit at EXIT 10 and walked for less than a minute, the market is on the left. It is a very lively market with lots of human interaction, and is packed with approximately 150 shops of mainly fish, meat and vegetables.
Recently, the number of foreign tourists has increased drastically, while at the same time more and more restaurants are serving lunch. Eat-in shops for sushi or fresh seafood over rice, also grilled fish, shellfish, meat and other food being served in or outside of shops give off mouth-watering aromas to an increasingly international crowd.
Kuromon Information Centre is a FREE REST AREA. Open hour is 9:00 - 18:00. You can eat and drink what you bought at the Kuromon Market. And there are also toilets. Questions about the Kuromon Market are certain. There is baggage storage in the information center, and you can deposit your luggage with 500 yen a day. But it was so crowded here, not sure if there's enough lockers for luggages.
You can read more about the information centre from the official website.
The must eat is this beef stall (directly opposite the Kuromon Information Centre), the beef is really very very good and tender. So much better than the one I tried in Namba (that stall was a No No).
As we had tried kobe beef in Kobe, this time round we tried the wagyu beef, omg, is was so good and melt in the mouth, cost us 3000 yen, really worth it.
They even issued a certificate to prove it is genuine beef.
Now I am still thinking about the taste of the beef hahaha.
Next we went to a stall and saw grilled scallop, wow was so huge, hubby went to queue to buy the scallop, while I head inside the shop to look for seats. I cannot remember the price of the scallop, I think is about 800 to 1000 yen. Was so good, very soft and tender and easy to chew.
The shop also sell other food too, we ordered seafood noodles , 1800 yen. Quite expensive but very worth cause it contained a lot of seafood and had huge clams inside. The clams was soft and tender, also easy to chew, not overcooked. I am a light eater and normally eat very light and try to avoid deep fried, grilled or oily food but when I am travelling, I really eat a lot and forget about the healthy diet, hahaha, I put on 2 kg after this Osaka trip hehehe.
After a happy lunch, we came across a shop selling all sorts of local products in Japan. We bought JAPAN HOKKAIDO JAGA POKKURU POTATO CHIPS 18 G X 10 PACKS, cost us 1000 yen. For the Tokyo banana, best get it at the airport, the tokyo banana sold at this shop is very expensive. For the potato chips, I could not find them at Kansai airport. We also bought a lot of other local products.
The market also sell other products besides seafood.
Hahaha, we bought too many snacks, gifts, souvenirs, etc, so decided to get a box from the hotel reception but they charge us 400 yen for the box but free masking tape. Lucky I bought my own marker pen and some strings to tie the box after taping with masking tape.
Video of our visit to Kuromon Market, Osaka.
Once out of the train station at Rinku, there's sign to direct us to Rinku Premium Outlet and saw a shop offering storage facilities and is cheaper than at the airport but left not many spots. I saw many tourists did not even bother to store their luggages, they just drag along whereever they shop hahaha but then we are only 2 of us with more than 2 luggages, so is a bit difficult for us to try our luck to store our luggages at Rinku first, so we play the safe mode by storing at the airport with more storage facilities.
The premium outlet is just behind the ferris wheel, so just walked towards the ferris wheel and look out for signs to direct the way to premium outlet.
Not everything is expensive here, saw many children clothes way below S$10, bought some for my grandnephew and grandniece.
Please note not all the branded stuff are made in Japan, most are made from China, Vietnam, Thailand, etc.
Had our tea break at one of the coffee house, nice bread and good cozy place to rest our tired legs.
Satisfied with our shopping and well spend time before checking in for our very late flight, we made our way back to Kansai International Airport.
From here, it does not make any differences to take either the airport express or local train cause only one train station away for either train.
Had a nice chinese dinner at 551 Horai Restaurant at Kansai International Airport, I remember I took some photos but I cant find them in my files, not sure if I have accidentally deleted them in my handphone.
