No, Really, I Am an American

I ended up going to Kansai International Airport.

Braden and I attempted to take the JR to Nara and truth be told, it was slightly more complicated than we first anticipated. We followed the signs, but the tricky part is the type of train and destinations. Some trains are local, which means they’ll make more stops, some are semi-express, less stops, and some are rapid express, maybe one or two stops on the way. The other part that makes the JR smarter than us was the part where even though the signs tell you what cities trains on the platform are bound for, we still have to pay attention and hop the right train.

I have to trust myself more. Even though I saw that the board said something about Kansai Airport, the platform itself was for a Nara bound train.

Long story short, it took us MUCH longer to get to the ancient capital than we would have liked.

We didn’t lose everything at least. We got to walk around the koen and see the deer. Braden attempted to ride one like a pony and there were plenty of shrines and buildings to take pictures of. We spent maybe an hour and a half wandering around the park, and there was still lots of it to see, but the sun was setting and Braden didn’t bring a hoodie or a jacket.

We had dinner together and went to Starbucks. As we passed the Kintetsu Nara station, something flickered in my memory.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“What?”

I shook my head, “The Kintetsu line will take us all the way to Namba.” Basically, the other train would have been much faster. So we took that home.

And now we know (and knowing is half the battle); next time we want to go to Nara or Kyoto, take the freaking Kintetsu line!

For the record, if people visit me, I will have figured the whole transportation thing out and we can traipse about other places besides Osaka.

Bonus: It didn’t rain!