Gold Coast 》Cairns 》Osaka

Our delayed trip to Japan begins today. Fortunately, Japan has relaxed a lot of their restrictions - PCR test not required and no Visa required. Just need the Covid vaccinations and mySOS app for entry into Japan.

Caught the early morning flight from the Gold Coast to Cairns. Left in drizzly weather but fine and warm in Cairns. Masks are optional on domestic flights. The next flight we managed to secure a row for the 2 of us so a bit of room to spread out. Actually, plane was only half full, if that and masks were only required when disembarking at Osaka (and everywhere else so far)

Osaka immigration etc. went like clockwork, particularly if you had your mySOS app completed with a blue screen you tended to walk through pretty quickly. We managed to negotiate catching the train with a little help with purchasing tickets from the machine. The hardest part was negotiating our way out of the train station to our hotel.

Hotel room is small but comfortable. It's about 9pm local time by now and we had not really eaten since Cairns apart from a couple of snacks so we negotiated our first Japanese dining experience which was basically pointing at a picture of the dish we liked the look of to make our selection. We made good choices too - absolutely delish!

Well, tour starts tomorrow. Should be fun. Only 1 pic today - more tomorrow.Read more