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I got on the skytrain bound for the main arrival hall. I got a view of KIX from above. It was surrounded by the sea, very different from Singapore Changi Airport. I took my time in many areas because I had to wait for a friend in the airport who arrives on a later flight, 5 hours later...
So I got to the immigration checkpoint. There weren't many people, so the counters were empty. I got directed to an empty one that was handling Japanese passports. Ok, I made a great mistake. I should have just wrote that I was on holiday. I ticked 'study' on the form and the man asked a lot of questions. He asked me where I was staying. I replied I was staying at a youth hostel but he obviously did not understand. In the end, I gave up and said I was going on the Shinkansen bound for my host university. Then it came to baggage check. The person requested for me to open up my luggage and checked the stuff inside... Gosh... He even took a pack of pantyliners in his hands! I was like "eh?". I asked my friend later if she had to go through such stuff. The answer was no, because there was too many people on her flight... I passed the baggage check obviously and I thought since I would be hanging around for 5 hours, I might as well go to the transit area and shop around a little as well as wait inside till my friend's flight arrives. However, there was no way of going there and I realised I had only 1 way to walk: out! I figured I would probably go read something somewhere... I went out of the gates and explored a bit. Then I went to the 2nd floor that was the arrivals for domestic flights. And I was glad. There were more stuff there. However, the shopping areas were on the 3rd and 4th floor and you could not wheel a trolley up the escalators. My luggage was pretty big and so I was stuck. (I realised later that I could have taken the elevator but then I wouldn't have bought anything anyway so it was of no point.). Therefore, I stayed at the more comfortable domestic arrivals floor and revised my Japanese, played some games or wrote something on my laptop. I went to buy something at a convenience store nearby for dinner: a bottle of Kirin Afternoon Tea and bread, and paid for it with a 10,000 yen bill... For those with a large luggage and you don't have anyone with you and you can't check in your luggage, take my advice. Go to the toilets on the 2nd floor. They are the only toilets large enough to accomodate you and your luggage. My luggage couldn't fit for the one on the first floor. However, this may be restricted to the ladies only, for the larger space was to be used for nursing your baby... So I managed to rot for 5 hours and when the time came I went to wait for my friend at the international arrivals hall. I took some pictures on that floor. My friend finally arrived and now we have our next problem: finding our way to the youth hostel, at night...... |
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