Train to Osaka
February 20, 2025.
We slept in late on this day. I think we both needed it. This day was designated as both travelling to Osaka and as a rest day, because we would get to sleep in late and then snooze on the train for ages. The bullet train was sooo cool!! It was super comfortable and warm. We both got cute lil ekiben which were super yummy. It was very exciting to see the countryside, it was even snowing in Kyoto! The Osaka train station was awesome, it had so many cool souvenirs. We did however get a bit lost and ended up taking the longest possible route to my uncle's hotel.
When we finally got to my uncle's place... My uncle is a hotel manager. I was aware of this. What I wasn't aware of is that he is the manager of a fucking 5 star hotel in central Namba. You've got to remember my family is a middle class, mixed race family from deep rural New Zealand. So I got a massive surprise when we went in, it was fancy as shit, and then I went to the front desk and go "Hii~ Uhm I'm here for [uncle's full name]?"" and the guy at the desk looks at me like he's gonna piss himself and goes "The Manager??"" and I go on to sound insane by saying "yeah he's my uncle. He said there might be a key here for me or something?"
They treated us like we were really important, which was hilarious, but yeah they eventually got us to my uncle's room(?) and we could finally let out the screeches of exasperation we were holding in. My uncle and adorable little cousin eventually came to pick us up and we went out for yakiniku!! It was so nice to catch up with my little cousin. I can't believe she's already 10. Anyway I caught up with my family a bit more while we walked around and then we went back to the hotel and Koinuko and I totally crashed and watched Shaun The Sheep on the comically large TV of the room they put us in.
