Planes, Thrills and Meals: SQ to Kansai, Osaka , Kyoto and Universal Studios Japan

[yflyer]

The next dish of crab, lotus root and watercress with lemon dressing was a refreshing dish that I found exquisite…



The monkfish liver dish on the menu was not served that night (The substitute was the prawn in black sesame – our first course). This was a minor letdown as we both enjoyed eating monkfish liver and I was keen to see how it was prepared here, but in any case, there were already more than sufficient dishes on the menu to fill us up…

A satisfying preparation of wild boar, shrimp and shitake mushroom was next…these probably constituted the main meat dish for the evening.



It may have been just me, but I found the pacing of service at this restaurant a little quick…on one hand it was clear the staff were watching attentively as we ate, and kept the dishes coming without long delays, but compared to western fine dining, where there was usually quite a gap in time between courses, today’s dinner was one dish served quickly after another. Perhaps this was a cultural difference…

Tea was served. A useful pause before the next course.



We had a choice of final course…



Mrs yflyer chose the dried sardines and rice, which was spectacular, the small “ikan bilis”-like flavour of the sardines went beautifully with the short grained Japanese rice.



I chose curry rice, which was comfort food really, and this was an especially refined version of this popular treat…



Dessert was a sesame bavarian cream, tasting quite similar to panna cotta, accompanied by an apple granita, which we both found to be an exceptional dessert…



We ended with a delicious sliver of plum jelly and green tea…



Our conclusion? Mrs yflyer and I felt that this was very adventurous and creative cuisine, and yet grounded in Japanese tradition. A dinner which made us think, and challenged us to try new tastes and textures. Not always comfortable or even familiar, but one that stretched and broadened our culinary horizons.

After dinner, the waitress asked where we, and the guests seated around us, were from. There was couple from Hong Kong, and a lady from Korea, a single diner. This place was very popular not just with locals, but visitors as well. “We get many foreign visitors from Korea, Hong Kong, but the most are from Singapore” she said, to our surprise!

As we left the restaurant, the chef and his wife came to the door to say goodbye…yet another local tradition. We thanked them for a wonderful dinner…a meal that we would not soon forget.

[yflyer]

The apartment in Dotonburi was the last place we would stay at with cooking facilities. The day before we checked out, Mrs yflyer and I headed once again to Kuromon Ichiba market to do a little marketing for dinner, which Mrs yflyer would cook in the apartment.



While Mrs yflyer couldn’t resist sampling a bite of this and that, I was single-minded in my objective: a juicy marbled steak. Not just any steak…one appropriate for the last big meal of our vacation. A grand finale, so to speak.

The market that morning was busy, as always, but we were there early enough to avoid the worst of the tourist crowd. There was actually room to stop and look, without being swept along by waves of shoppers…

The aroma of dried bonito flakes filled the air around this stall…



Glistening slabs of whole tuna…



Gigantic oysters, each the size of your palm…



“Eel skewers…”, Mrs yflyer pointed to skewers of eel livers or innards (we weren’t sure which…), before she bought a skewer and offered me a bite…



I was tasked with buying the steak for the evening, but we paused to observe how one butcher, with a small sit-down dining table next to his meat counter, cooked several cuts of steak on the spot for a customer…with Mrs yflyer, always keen to refine her cooking skills, observing his technique very closely…



Thinly sliced slabs of marbled meat on the cook top…more than a minute on each side…salt and pepper…





…before slicing…



…and serving with just a simple garnish and sauce…

[yflyer]

And elsewhere, as on our first day, more seafood was being prepared for on the spot consumption…



So that’s how you prepare sea urchin…



...all you need is a sharp pair of scissors...



Abalone…



...sliced...



...grilled...



...and served in its opalescent shell...

[yflyer]

…and giant cockle…







…utterly delicious…

[yflyer]

Choosing beef would not be easy…

Black hair wagyu…



Different cuts of Kobe beef…





In the end, I chose a cut of Matsusaka steak, not as well known internationally as Kobe beef, but a much prized favourite among the Japanese, not to mention exceedingly difficult to obtain outside Japan!

[yflyer]

That evening, with a hungry and expectant family waiting around the bar counter, Mrs yflyer got to work…



She had bought pre-cooked Japanese rice from a grocery store but everything else would be cooked from scratch…



Oysters…



Sauteed with onions and vegetables…



…and topped with an ultra fresh Japanese soft boiled egg…



…thin strips of sukiyaki-style Wagyu, seared in the pan for just the briefest instant…

[yflyer]

…and the centerpiece of the meal: Matsusaka beef steak…



…which Mrs yflyer, with beads of sweat on her forehead, from both the heat of the stove, as well as from performance anxiety given that her culinary reputation was on the line, gently seared one side, flipped, and seared the other side, timing her moves very precisely…



...the result? Slices of heaven…



… some of the most tender, and probably the most delicious, steak we had ever eaten…

[yflyer]

The next day, we checked out of our apartment and headed to an airport hotel near KIX for the last night of our trip, before our early SQ flight the following day.

We took the regular express train from Nankai-Namba Station to the airport hotel, very close to KIX. However, there is also a premium limited express train service to KIX, called rapi:t, which operates a reserved seat only service on futuristic trains with a very striking retro design.

These trains in their regular dark blue livery are already beautiful...



…but they had a train in a Star Wars promo paint scheme that was simply stunning…













We didn’t ride on it, as it was more expensive that the regular express trains to Kansai, and took only ten minutes less time to get there (35 minutes on rapi:t, vs 45 via the regular Nankai Airport Express trains), but it was great to at least ogle at this beauty from the outside.

[yflyer]

Our hotel was the Star Gate Hotel, at Rinku Town, a shopping and leisure complex, located at the second last train stop, just before Kansai Airport, and in fact, right at the bridge leading to the man-made island where Kansai Airport is located.



This was a 58 storey hotel with panoramic views of Kansai Airport and the surrounding area. There was also a leisure park, ferris wheel, and premium outlet shopping mall in the area.

We stayed there because Mrs yflyer felt that it would be easier to get to the airport for our morning flight if we stayed close to KIX.

I though that staying at Rinku Town at the end of the trip was a great idea, and that turned out to be the case. Not only were the views from the hotel superb, there was a lot to keep us occupied for a day in Rinku Town, which had a relaxed, oceanfront atmosphere, quite different from the hustle and bustle of big city Osaka. In fact, as our train left Osaka towards Kansai, we could almost feel the pace and energy of the big city dissipating, in it’s place a relaxed, laid back vibe.

The hotel was just a few steps away from the Rinku Town train station.

Hotel lobby...



We booked a large corner room, with additional beds rolled into the room to fit the four of us…





Separate dressing table area…



Bathroom and toilet…

[yflyer]

Views of the surrounding area from our hotel room were spectacular…







Far below, we could see small vegetable farms and plots of farmland interspersed among the homes and buildings of the area…



We were not facing the airport, but views of the airport and surrounding areas could be seen from other rooms, and the public areas of the hotel.

We took a walk through Rinku Pleasure Town, and rode their Ferris Wheel.





Mrs yflyer and I treated ourselves to 45 minutes of Japanese foot reflexology at a traditional massage outlet in the train station mall. After that Mrs yflyer sped like a bullet train across to the Rinku Town Premium Outlets for a quick look around.

[yflyer]

I didn’t join Mrs yflyer at the Premium Outlets (I would not have been able to keep up…), and instead went around the hotel, camera in hand, to snap a few pictures of KIX.

Unless you had rooms with windows directly facing the airport, there is no designated airport viewing area in the hotel, apart from the top floor restaurant, which you can enter for breakfast and other meal times.

I wandered, camera in hand through the top floors searching for a good vantage point. There was a hall setup for weddings that was empty at the time. It had panoramic views of the bay below. I went in and headed to the windows for pictures. I found an emergency exit door and service corridor which led to a service lobby which had a few windows with airport views. An airport-facing guest room had been vacated, with guests checked out and room door left ajar for cleaning. I stepped in uninvited, and headed to the window with camera in hand. You get the idea...







China Southern 737…



Jetstar Airbus A320…



JAL 737 departing over the 3km bridge that connects KIX with the mainland at Rinku Town.



737 landing…



KAL Airbus A330 landing at dusk…



And far above, contrails above Kansai…

[yflyer]

The ferris wheel and coast line at Rinku Town…



KIX by night…

[yflyer]

The next morning, we took the complimentary hotel shuttle bus for the 10 minute ride to Kansai Terminal 1.



Large, airy atriums, soaring metal roofs, graceful curves and panoramic tarmac views…all these are to some extent taken for granted by both business and leisure travellers these days.





These days, with other megahub airports in Asia-Pacific, like Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok, and Incheon Airport in Korea, not to mention KLIA in Kuala Lumpur, and Beijing’s massive capital airport, passengers in KIX may wonder what the fuss is all about with this airport.

But one has to remember that all of those other airports opened after Kansai. KIX was the one of the first, if not the first, to showcase the flowing lines, curves, and vast open spaces that we now see in many modern airports.

When Renzo Piano and his associates designed this airport, and when it was first opened in September 1994, it was an awesome achievement, both in terms of civil engineering, and the stunning design of the airport, the longest airline terminal in the world at 1.7km long at time of it’s opening.

Just to put timescales in perspective, KLIA only opened four years after KIX, in June 1998. Even Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok, another airport with a spectacular design, and wide open spaces, only opened in 1998, four years after KIX, and a month after KLIA, in July 1998. Incheon Airport followed in 2001, replacing the congested Gimpo Airport.

For passengers used to cramped, congested terminals with low ceilings, winding corridors, arriving or departing from Kansai, the design and architecture of KIX must have been a revelation.



While no longer unique in terms of design, KIX is still a beautiful, and user-friendly airport to use, and it has aged remarkably well, with a timeless design of graceful curving metal and wide open spaces.

[yflyer]

The SQ check-in counters…



Airside shopping…



Airside departure concourse and gate area…





Gates are spread out across the central concourse, and two wings to the North and South, accessible via people mover.



ANA and Thai Royal Orchid Lounges are in the North Wing, while the JAL Sakura Lounge is in the South Wing.



SQ flights use the South Wing, a short people-mover ride away.





You can go both ways on the people-mover between the South Wing and the Main Terminal. This is unlike other airports where it is one-way only to the satellite terminal.



Both wings retain the look and feel of the central terminal…

[yflyer]

JAL Dreamliner taking off…



The skyscraper in the background, near the bridge, is the Star Gate Hotel we stayed in.

Quite a few Cathay flights operating out of KIX…



Mrs yflyer and I spent some time in the JAL Sakura Lounge, which was the designated SQ lounge for our flight. I found it unusual, and a pleasant surprise, to be able to use the JAL Lounge, and not the lounge of Star Alliance Partner ANA (Or the Thai Royal Orchid Lounge, for that matter). I suspect this is the case because the ANA and Thai Lounges are in the North Wing, at the other end of the airport. More on our lounge visit here.

Boarding for our flight began on time.



Very orderly and quick boarding, with everyone only getting up to queue when boarding was announced. No-one crowding the gate area.