So today was the first of many low cost carrier flights we’re taking on this trip. Today’s one was from Kansai Airport to Naha, the capital of Okinawa.
We caught a couple of trains from Fukuoka, to Kansai International Airport, the airport of Osaka. One of the recurring problems Kathryn and I have is to do with being certain when travelling. I have a bad habit of appearing more certain about things, such as where stations are, or what to say, or what we’re eating, than I actually am. This annoys Kathryn to no end. In return, I think I’m more accepting of not knowing things. I give it a go, and sometimes I’m right, and sometimes I’m wrong. We’re working on aligning our expectations!
I know no one wants to read about the dramas of a couple of people travelling, but let’s be honest, it’s not all awesome Instagram shots of awesome people in awesome locations, most of the time it’s waiting, or catching stinky local buses, or wondering if you’ve got enough change to buy a chocolate.
We arrived at Kansai Airport super early, like 5 hours early. Well ya’know, just in case. It’s a pretty big airport, with about 40 shops which we walked around. There’s two terminals, Terminal 1, the normal developed terminal, and Terminal 2, the low cost carrier terminal. This is about a 10 minute bus ride away to the back part of the airport. There’s only one airline that departs from Terminal 2, Peach.
I like Peach, I think they’ve got pizazz. Does anyone say that any more? Kathryn hates them like she hates Jetstar. Low cost carriers are easy to figure out – follow their rules. That’s it. Peach has a couple of rules, no more than two carry on bags, and no more than 10kg. They have scales at the line to check in. Easy. We were going to risk it, but then we saw lots of foreigners putting on their jackets and stuffing them full of books and other heavy things. Deciding we didn’t want to do that, we purchased another bag, and stuffed all the heavy things into it. We purchased some checked-in luggage for $17 each way, and we were sorted. Considering the flights were only $50 each way for a 2 hour flight, there’s a good reason people use low cost carriers.
Naha Airport in Okinawa also has two terminals, the normal terminal, and what appears to be an old shed, which they all the LCC Terminal. It’s so cheap, instead of having a conveyor belt for luggage, it’s just a guy who drops your bag in a spot.
We then caught a monorail (exciting!) to Naha to stay in our hotel. This hotel was only $112 for two nights, which is actually silly cheap. And what we got was awesome. A big double bed, a massive room, good size bathroom, free breakfast, working air conditioning, it’s really amazing, and great value.
We walked to the nearest convenience store, and the warm wind was blowing, just like Hawaii. The people were relaxed, I saw a couple of Hawaiian t-shirts.
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❖ Equipment ❖
Panasonic Lumix GF7
Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens
Sony FDR-X3000 Action Cam
Sony VCT-STG1 Shooting Grip
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