I have 5.5 hours wo wait in Osaka Airport. Am I allowed
leaving? Departure tax? Things to do around the airport
Thanks
Andrew
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I believe you are allowed to leave and can get a departure
tax waiver from your transfer desk - The transfer into
Osaka takes about 30 minutes on the "Rapid" but costs about
Y1400 ??? Take the longer JR Train for Y890. I think if you
wanted a quick 'snap-shot' of Japan, you'd get it in Osaka
- shame you don't have more time to head over to Kyoto and
Nara.
Have a look at the KIX Osaka Kansai Airport page at:
http://www.kansai-airport.or.jp/index-e.html
Hopefully others can add more input....
Osaka has two airports Kansai International (for
international flights) and Itami (the domestic airport).
I assume as you were asking questions about whether you can
leave you'll be at Kansai International.
You are allowed to leave the airport, but remember that if
you do you will have to clear customs and immigration in
just the same way as someone visiting Japan, and this takes
time. Also you need to leave time for clearing immigration
again when you check back in.
As Skyline mentioned, you can get a waver on the departure
tax if you are leaving within 24hrs, ask at your airline's
desk.
There are several ways of getting into Osaka
The Nankai railway has the "Rapit" which takes 30 mins and
costs 1400 yen or a regular express kuukou kyuukou which
takes about 45 mins and costs 870 yen (I think), these
terminate in Namba.
JR has a regular express to Osaka which takes about 70 mins
and costs about 900 yen and a rapid express service (Haruka)
to Shin-Osaka (very expensive). These both also stop in
Tennoji.
There is also a limosine bus which is the cheapest option,
but also the slowest so probably no good considering your
limited time.
If you want to see Osaka I would suggest taking the Nankai
line (Rapit or normal express) to Namba and having a look
around the Namba/Shinsaibashi area. This is the
entertainment district, it is also just a short walk to
Americamura (America village) where all the young trendy
things hang out - good for people watching. And the
electrical goods district of Nipponbashi (Den den town) is
close by if you want to pick up any electrical goods or just
have a look at all the Neon signs.
Another possibility would be to take the JR train to Tennoji
and go and have a look at Shitennoji, a traditional
Japanese temple.
Or another possibility would be to go to Kishiwada which is
in South Osaka, nearer to the airport (15 mins on Nankai
express train) and is quite a nice town with a castle.
The KIX homepage (in post above) has links to all the
transportation routes and so on, so have a look at that.
Have fun
JR WEST schedule has changed from 10MAY and it's more
complicated now because if we take wrong car of the train
to KIX, when kankuu kaisoku and kisoji kaisoku is joined,
we might end up at Wakayama instead of KIX.
They keep anouncing about it a lot(quite annoying!) on the
train, but in Japanese.
Just a little correction, but train fare to Namba on Nankai
is 890yen and JR to Osaka is 1160yen:)
New kaisoku train to Wakayama is not kisoji kaisoku but it
is kiSYUji kaisoku... kisyu is an old name for Wakayama
area, by the way.
When you write Japanese names in English I noticed you often
use:
syu instead of shu
and sya instead of sha
this is the only time I saw this style being used these
days.
Why do you use this unusual style?
Don't you think it's old fashioned?
Answer is very simple, it's my habit when typing:)
When we type Japanese, PC or word processor, most people
type by alphabet. So it's exactly same way I would type
when typing same word in Japanese. And when we type, "syu"
and "shu" are same "é╡éπéñ"(hope you can read!) in
Japanese. So how we type is not so important for us.
But Most printed things use hebon-siki(I don't know English
spelling for hebon), or hebon method which is "shu" instead
of "syu". I don't think it's too old-fashioned. I think
older people tend to use "h" a lot, as in the name "OH":)