A delay in takeoff from Incheon and air traffic congestion ensured that we landed at Osaka Kansai nearly two hours late. But it wasn't too late to say こんにちは 日本 - Kon'nichiwa Nippon...
Preparing immigration and customs documentation on the flight...
Our inflight meal - seafood rice with orange juice...
A shot of the airside at Kansai International Airport (KIX) at a high speed just after landing...
KIX is located on an artificial 13 square kilometre island located in the in the middle of Osaka Bay, 38 km southwest of Osaka Station, located within three municipalities, including Izumisano, Sennan and Tajiri in the industrial Kansai region of Osaka Prefecture...
The airport was completed in 1994 and was and still is an engineering marvel. Construction took nearly 7 years - it started in 1987 and the airport opened in 1994. A sea wall made of rock and 48,000 tetrapods was finished in 1989. Three mountains were excavated to yield 21,000,000 cubic metres of earth to make for the landfill that makes up the island today. In 1990, a three kilometer bridge was completed to connect the island to Rinku town.
The island was designed to be resilient to natural disasters. In January 1995, Japan was struck by the Kobe earthquake, whose epicenter was barely 20 kilometers away from KIX, but the airport emerged unscathed. In 1998, the airport survived a typhoon with wind speeds of 200 kilometres per hour.
The total cost of constructing KIX was about USD 20 billion including land reclamation, two runways, terminals and facilities. Additional costs were including expenses towards prevention of island sinking, expected due to the soft soil of Osaka Bay.
Waiting for our bags at Terminal 2 of KIX...
Terminal 2 is a bare bones terminal exclusively for Peach. The terminal has no aerobridges and looks quite like an industrial shed unlike the main terminal, Terminal 1...
Waiting to board the airport limousine bus that would take us in 60 minutes to the Umeda area in Osaka city, which will be our home for the next 2 days. Everything in Japan seems to be in automated mode - even tickets are sold through vending machines!
The bus comes in...
And bags ready to go in...
And finally after an hour's ride along an elevated expressway, we reach Osaka city. We were dropped off at Herbis Osaka - shopping centre at 1 AM from where we took a taxi to our hotel. The taxi drivers here are suit clad and extremely courteous. When the driver realised and confirmed with us that we were Indian, his tone became extra sweet. Such is the soft power of our great nation...
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