Today marks the beginning of the end in a way. I transition to Osaka, Japan today for my return flight home tomorrow evening. With only a few morning hours before heading to the airport, I took my time to enjoy one last nice breakfast with a view. Then I walked along the "Avenue of the Stars" waterline again to say farewell to the big city that has given me so many interesting experiences, and tired legs, over the last few days. I haven't really explained it yet, and since today is a short day, I'll take a minute now. The Avenue of the Stars is a waterfront pedestrian promenade with views across to the Central side of the Hong Kong skyline, where the 8pm nightly "Symphony of Lights" show takes place. This promenade is kind of like the Hollywood sidewalk with famous actors/actresses stars in the ground, except here, it is their hand prints and plaques along the railing. Besides the statue of Bruce Lee at the end, I doubt we would recognize any of the names. At sunset and again at 8pm, this whole area fills with people enjoying the view and the show. It is like watching a Disneyland parade; there is synchronized music playing over hidden speakers while the light show dazzles across the water on the skyscrapers. It is just a really nice waterfront area, and my hotel is literally next to it. In a similar way, the subways have classical music playing, which I think elevates the experience for sure. I loaded up my suitcase and made the easy, if not long, subway trek back to the airport. That's another observation… texting while walking. There are a LOT of people here on the sidewalks and subways, but legitimately 75% have their faces buried in their phones. I found it a challenge to avoid running into people (and that is with my full undistracted attention!), but so many locals are blindly pushing forward with their heads down. And it's not to follow directions or write an email, I can see their screens, they are playing Candy Crush or doom scrolling TikTok. It was actually kind of frustrating at times because they would be walking super slow and blocking the path, or they would basically run into you unless you yielded out of the way, they're oblivious. Once you get the hang of it, it gets easier. You basically have to let go of all normal courtesy, and treat the crowds in a more cutthroat manner. I got settled back at the airport's Centurion Lounge. They were at capacity, but it worked out for me because they gave me one of their private rooms rather than making me wait. A few rounds of food and drinks, and I boarded my Hong Kong Airlines flight to Osaka. I'd say this was the Southwest Airlines of China for sure. My seat, Row 34A, was the fourth row back from the front door?? Not sure how that numbering system works, but I was happy to know I'd be first off and at the head of the pack to clear customs in Japan. I breezed through immigration, but the struggle was real on the other side. I remembered my last trip to Japan being very easy to navigate, this was not my experience tonight. It was very difficult to figure out how to purchase a ticket and which track to go to with any form of confidence. I ended up going on a bus to a different terminal only to find that when I got off there, there are no trains and I had to get back on a bus to the original terminal I was at. Then once I was successfully inside the track areas nothing was looking right, and initially the ticket counter did not have a human beings to ask for help. Finally there was a train ticket office person and they pointed me in the right direction. I'm pretty sure I bought two tickets as well. So much for all my Hong Kong subway swag. I'll see if I can do better tomorrow when I have to do everything in reverse back to the airport. I arrived in Namba and walked outside to legit snowflakes falling through the frigid 32 degree weather. In all my months of planning this trip down to every little detail, and monitoring the weather for two weeks straight in Hong Kong to make sure it was predictable, not once did I ever bother to see what the weather was in Osaka, I guess I just assumed it'd be the same. Whoopsie. After dropping my bags at the closet sized hotel room, I layered on four shirts and double socks to head out to explore the Dotonbori area. It was late, but I still wanted to see it at night with all the neon lights and bustling action. It is definitely the hip younger scene, like walking the Vegas strip at night. There was club music echoing from the buildings, street vendors selling food, and neon signs everywhere. It seemed like every other storefront or restaurant had its own giant sculpture hanging off the building: a huge crab, an angry cartoon sushi chef, an octopus, a dragon, and so on. I had to stop and get some takoyaki from a vendor because apparently that's what you do in dotonbori. They were pretty tasty little golf ball size octopus/fish balls smothered in sushi sauces and mayo with a sprinkling of seaweed maybe on top. I walked around a bit more and then returned to my cubbyhole of a room before I froze to death.
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