We, finally, are in Osaka. It is midnight, and having lost 2 hours in the process of travel means that we've been up for 23 hours so far. That incident with the taxi seems like it was days ago, not just earlier today.

Jetstar Business class was again, really really good. I still maintain that for flights of a decent length, I wouldn't go back to economy class. Jetstar economy class anyway.

Despite having the boarding call pull us away from our comfy lounges, food and drink, up arriving at the boarding gate we were met with a giant DELAYED sign. Immediately memories came to mind of us sitting in the exact same location, at the exact same gate for hours when our last flight to Japan was delayed, however this time, thankfully, it was only a 20 minute delay.

Once again hundreds of people were lined up (as the Japanese seem to enjoy doing) and once again we stayed seated, well away from the queue, and by virtue of the business class tickets we were able to stroll onto the plane first, and be greeted by drinks and snacks, while everyone else jostled for position entering the cabin.

The Jetstar business class service is very attentive and friendly, as you'd expect for the price premium, but the catering leaves alot to be desired. The main meal consisted of a choice between a Terriake Salmon dish, A vegetarian stuffed mushroom dish, or a chicken dish.

"Sir, what would you like for your main meal?"
"I'll have the stuffed mushrooms please"
"I'm sorry sir. We don't have any of the mushroom dishes left..."
"Uh...ok, no problem. I'll have the chicken."
"Oh, I'm sorry Sir. We're also out of the chicken."
"Really? So I have a meal choice of....fish?"
"I'm afraid so sir"
"I guess I'll have the fish then?"

Why did he even bother asking me?

Jetstar...when offering your customers a choice of meals, it is often advisable to actually have a choice of meals available for your customers to select from. I'll be writing a friendly but disgruntled email to Jetstar once I get home so they can ignore it. At least it will make me feel better.

As some consolation, the fish was ok.

To add insult to insult they had Movenpick ice cream for desert, and by the time they got to me my choices were strawberry or strawberry. Turns out I don't enjoy Movenpick strawberry ice cream.

Jetstar's entertainment is no longer built into the seatbacks, but now comes in the form of iPads handed out to anyone that wants them ($12 for economy class I believe). I've got mixed feelings about this. On one hand it was very convenient to be able to put the screen where you wanted it while watching it. On the other hand, you had to put the screen somewhere when you weren't watching it. Since the seatbacks were already full of water bottles, in-flight magazines, headphones and other traveling bric-a-brac, this quickly became an annoyance during meal times and basically any other time you weren't using the iPad. I'm fairly certain that I'd rather go back to the old tech of having it built into the seat-back.

Afternoon tea on the plane was quite good. Steak sandwich and passionfruit cakes or Lindt chocolate.

So with the flight starting to drag on a bit, and the girls (and the parents) all starting to get restless and thoroughly sick of it, the announcement was finally made that we were landing. If the flight seemed long and annoying in Business class, it would have been hell in economy class.

With around 30 minutes to go Isabelle finally fell asleep, and slept through the entire landing, and taxi-ing to the airport. We finally woke her up, and departed the plane without fuss.

On the previous Business class Jetstar flight we had, the economy passengers were held back until the Business class passengers were all off, meaning we got to customs before everyone else which made it a lot quicker. Not this time. As we walked off we joined the mass of 300 other people all pushing and clamoring to get to customs first. Unpleasant, especially when you're exhausted and just want to get out of there. But despite the number of people, we got through customs and baggage collection, and out of the airport in around an hour.

Outside of Kansai airport, we exchanged some US$ that my parents gave us as part of our Christmas present (for approximately 25% more than the greedy mongrels at the Cairns currency exchange booth were going to give us), and we were on our way.

Onto the Nankai train line, bound for Namba, and as soon as we got to the platform we boarded the slowest train in Japan. Stopping at every stop between Kansai and Namba, this train would take off from a station, travel for 40 seconds, and stop for anywhere between 30 seconds and 5 minutes. The train journey that should have take 40 minutes took closer to 80. On top of this, the Japanese obsession for superheating transport wasn't lost on the operators of this train, and we all roasted from the hot air blasting out from beneath the seats and strangely, through the seat cushions, which made the parts in close proximity to those cushions sweaty and uncomfortable.

Eventually we arrived at Namba Nankai station, and found our way to the hotel without incident.

I'm pretty sure I had the proud honor of being the only guy in the whole of Osaka wearing shorts and a t-shirt. With everyone else rugged up like Arctic explorers, we wandered through the city in light jumpers and jeans, or shorts and a shirt in my case. It really wasn't that cold, but I did get plenty of looks from locals who I think were assuming I'd lost my mind.

Not wanting to go anywhere substantial for dinner because we were all exhausted, after checking into the Toyoko Inn we dumped our bags and backtracked to the Family Mart convenience store we passed on the way in. Finding nothing that appealed to me, I took Charlotte and Angela for a wander through the backstreets to a 7-11 that I noticed on the map. Finding little more of interest there, we grabbed and assortment of breads and drinks and returned to the room.

On the way back a girl carrying boxes of oranges approached us as we waited to cross the road, and asked us in very broken English whether we wanted to buy a box. Once she realised that I spoke a little Japanese she asked the same thing, much more confidently this time. Confused, I declined, which made our late night orange seller look a little disappointed. Not sure why we were offered a box of oranges at 9:30pm at night in the middle of Osaka.

Exhausted, and after being awake for almost 24 hours, too tired to complete the blog entry I gave in, and collapsed into bed. I'm realising I'm not as young as I used to be.