Kansai 16 - Kobe/Osaka
For this trip, I had tried not to plan too many activities, in fact to allow for last minute changes or delays. I've got a 'bad' habit to pack as many activities as possible to maximize the trip, but would end up quite shagged lah. Lol
If you are keen in my itinerary, just drop me an email! I followed about 90% of my itinerary, with some minor changes. I did quite a number of online booking/reservation, which I will share the links along the way. Hope it will help in your planning!
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Transportation
I stayed in 2 hotels, Hotel New Hankyu and Hotel Granvia Osaka when I was in Osaka. Both are located near the Osaka Station and accessible to the major transportation lines such as Hankyu Railways, Airport Limo, Subway and JR Lines. Shinkansen is located at Shin Osaka which is just a few minutes subway ride away.
I got quite a 'hard time' deciding which is the most cost effective transportation. Transport in Osaka is not really cheap, a one stop subway station may cost 240 Yen (i.e.$3). So hor, Singapore transport is really still manageable. I bought the ICOCA card (similar to EZ-link card ~ a top up value card but with no special discount for tourist) and I used about 5000 Yen per pax (i.e. $62.50) for my 7 full day trip, excluding Airport Limo, Hankyu Tourist Pass etc.... *Shrugged*.
At the tail end of my trip, I realized that there's this One-Day Enjoy Eco Card (cost 800 Yen). which is good if you intend to take the subway/bus at least 4 times (to and fro) a day; you might want to consider to get this card if it fits your travelling plan. You can use HyperDia to do a rough calculation of your daily transport expenses to see whether the Eco Card is worth it. =)
As our flight arrival time was close to midnight, I booked Hotel New Hankyu which is one of the stops along Airport Limo route. The ticket (round trip = 2760 Yen, valid for 14 days) can be bought at the 1st floor of Kansai Airport Terminal 1, i.e. the arrival hall. The vending machine to buy the ticket is outside the exit, where the buses will be parked. Dont worry. as there will be a staff to help with the vending machines. One thing I really need to salute to the Japanese, the timing is so damn accurate, the bus really left on dot, so just refer to the schedule in the Airport Limo website.
If you want to plan your travel, HyperDia is a good website to know the exact timing of departure, the route and the fares. For my Kobe and Kyoto trip, I went with Hankyu Railways and I referred to the 'Time Schedule Search' online. It's important to check the schedule to know the train that you want to board, a minute difference departure time can mean a different train and ended up with a longer route (happened to me).
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Enuff of my super wordy brief on transportation, I'm sure you will get it after a few times. Getting lost can be fun too! Keke
Hankyu Railway
We took the Hankyu Railway to Kobe, which should take less than 30min if we had taken the correct train. But okay lah, even by taking a wrong train, we just ended up with extra 15 mins of travel. Kobe is that near to Osaka, machiam go Orchard from home only.
For this trip to Kobe, I did not buy the Hankyu Tourist Pass (One day = 700 Yen) since we were taking a one way train ride, which cost 320 Yen.
We were here for Kobe Beef! There are many places selling Kobe beef in Kobe obviously, but we chose Steakland since it's near to the station, certified and relatively affordable.
Steakland (11am - 10pm)
Address: 〒650-0021 神戸市ä¸å¤®åŒºåŒ—é•·ç‹é€š1-8-2
Station: Hankyu Kobe Sannomiya, Exit 2
From Exit 2, you will see Honoeuleu Coffee, just walk straight into the paved lane.
Take this lift to level 6 which will lead you directly to the waiting area (there are some other entrance apparently) and write down your name. The staff will call your name when it's your turn.
We reached the restaurant around 11am and there was already a long queue. I guess, Singaporeans are not the only kiasu ones. Keke
The place is huge so waiting time was about 20-30mins for us. We opted for the Kobe Beef Steak Lunch Set (3,180 Yen), which consists salad, appetizer and a drink as well.
Money well spent!
One next stop is Kobe Sanda Premium Outlets, which is about an hour bus ride. You can buy the bus ticket at Sannomiya Bus Terminal, which is located near to JR Sannomiya East Gate. It took us a while to find the bus terminal and another challenge to buy the bus ticket as the staff could not understand English. Thank goodness, we managed to get our tickets at the vending machine beside the info counter. Lesson learnt, dont bother to ask the staff; time is more well spent to figure out the vending machine.
The one way bus trip to the Premium Outlets cost 660 Yen and I bought the bus trip back to Osaka online (1000 Yen), which supposed to be cheaper. Erm, if you plan to go back to Kobe from the Premium Outlets, I dunno where you can buy the ticket as I dont remember seeing any counter selling bus tickets at the Premium Outlets.
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Gutetama Cafe (11am to 1030pm)
Address: HEP Five, 7th Floor
Apparently, this cafe was the only restaurant where there was no people queuing outside during dinner time.... *Shrugged* We almost thought it was closed lor, coz cant see inside and the automatic doors was not responding well. Lucky there were people leaving, if not, we were had left for another option.
Menu is really limited, more like a dessert chillout place than a proper dinner venue. We ordered the 2 most appetizing looking items ~ Japanese Curry Rice and Pancake. The pancake was pretty good, thick and fluffy with 3 different sauces - chocolate, strawberry and cream. If you are looking for impressive meals, this's probably not the choice. But if you are Gutetama fan, just come for the cuteness!
Since we were at HEP Five, we took the Ferris Wheel for the night scenery. But it was drizzling and actually not very high to have a good view, so didnt see much. Haha, I think can skip this if you are there.
And we bought cheese tart! In 2 separate days, if case you are wondering are we gluttons..
BAKE Cheese Tart
Addres: Hanshin Departement Store B1 Food Section
I really like Bake cheese tart. It was very milky and I loved the crust which was hard like biscuit texture. But that's me, even for pineapple tart, I prefer hard hard crust. I think I'm willing to go queue at ION liao. Please do not disappoint me, BAKE Singapore! =p
Afternote: I tried BAKE Singapore, still good but I prefer it to be more chao-da (brown) leh..
Addres: Osaka JR Station
Pablo cheese tart was also nice and we easily finished the six inch. When I was surfing the net before my trip, I was still 'concerned' whether we can finish the cheese tart or should I say cake? Turned out it was a useless 'concern'. Hee
The crust was those light and fluffy kind; in fact, Hubby said he prefer Pablo to BAKE. So really depend on individual's preference bah.
Next post, Kyoto!
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