HIkari Shinkansen at Shinagawa Station

While long, the process of getting from Narita to Osaka, I’m happy to report, was quite straightforward and utterly lacking in any sort of stressful near-misses or complications.  Essentially we arrived at Narita Airport around 3:10pm, got through customs and immigration and finally made our way down to the train station by 4:45pm.  There were so many helpful individuals at Narita, whether it was the information desk clerk in the basement floor of the airport near the train stations, or the JR clerk who exchanged our JR pass vouchers for actual passes, apologized profusely when she found out the next rapid Sobu express to Tokyo was leaving in about 3 minutes (we declined and opted to take the next one arriving in another hour), most helpfully booked us reserved seats on the Hikari Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka-Shin, and gave us exceptionally detailed directions in great English.

But because of the electricity conservation efforts, the Narita Express, which would have taken about an hour to get us into Tokyo, was not running. We had to take the JR Sobu line instead, which takes around 90 minutes, and we exited at Shinagawa station, about 2 stations past Tokyo Eki.  We didn’t get to catch the 4pm Sobu; so by the time we reached Shinagawa, it was around 6:30pm, and we needed to catch the Hikari Shinkansen by 7:10.  We finally got into Osaka around 10:30, then caught a subway to the Nanba station near our hotel.  All told, think we finally managed to reach our teeny tiny room in the Hotel Dotonbori Namba close to midnight.

So – for the sake of keeping track – here’s a rundown of our trip:

• Friday, 25 March, 11:25am – depart from LAX (11 hour flight to Tokyo-Narita)
• Saturday, 26 March, 3:10pm – arrive Narita Airport
• 5pm – Sobu Line to Shinagawa Station
• 6:30pm – arrive Shinagawa Station; catch Hikari Shinkansen
• 7:10pm – Hikari Shinkansen to Osaka-Shin
• 10:30pm – arrive Osaka-Shin; take Subway to Nanba station
• 11:20pm – arrive Namba Station; walk to hotel
• 11:45pm – check in at hotel complete.

It was worthwhile to emerge at midnight, and wander along Dotonbori, eating Takoyaki and stumbling upon Kinryuu Ramen…

Ramen at 2am.