In case you didn’t guess we both fell asleep within an hour of checking in. It was glorious to finally lie flat on a bed after all that time. Who could blame us for not setting an alarm. When I woke up I felt great… I’d slept all night and it would soon be time to get up and visit Osaka. Then I saw the time, 7.00pm. I’d slept for three hours, there were probably twelve more dark hours until I could go exploring. Denis was still asleep so I kept the noise and the lighting to a minimum and edited the blog I’d drafted at the airport. Then I read myself to sleep until I woke again… at midnight. What the…? Nooooo! Meanwhile Denis slept on…

I no longer cared about his comfort and set myself up with a midnight snack. My friend A. had suggested bringing energy bars to Japan so that when we arrived from the airport and needed a quick fix we’d have a small shot of energy enabling us to track down a meal. Ok I didn’t want a meal but my brain needed a jolt because I was beginning to feel desperate. What if I never slept? What if I’m awake for the whole holiday? What if when I meet Darragh’s parents-in-law I’m ready to kill them? Or I accidentally insult them? Or do the thing with the chopsticks that’s rude. What’s the thing with the chopsticks? I can’t remember what I’m not supposed to do with the chopsticks!

There’s a kettle, tea and coffee sachets in the room and a couple of bottles of water, so I make tea. I have a personal rule not to drink caffeinated drinks after lunchtime, they keep me awake. But this was before lunch, right? Never mind, I’m doing this. In the tea section there was green tea and something called roasted green tea. I tried the roasted and it was almost like coffee but without the buzz. (Note to self: Bring home some of that.) I settled down to my feast. I think energy bars are a marketing hype and I don’t eat them. There’s a sentence I’ll never say again… With every bite I feel my desperation decrease.

Returning to bed again my expectations had shifted, maybe I wouldn’t sleep long and nmaybe sleep isn’t possible but maybe I’ll be grand without it. Then I noticed the humidifier. I’ve never used a humidifier, I didn’t even know they existed for most of my life. We have plenty of humidity at home. Maybe I’m missing damp Ireland? Maybe if I could just work out how to add more damp I’ll be able to sleep? Is it possible energy bars make you smarter?

There’s an instruction sheet in one of the drawers under the tv. It’s fairly sparse in instructions but I think I see what I need – the air purifier with skin moisturizer option – it’ll be like a spa (day) night. I have to press buttons until I get the symbols that look longer than the other symbols but there are no buttons. Well no, there is one button, the power button. The power button turns on a screen with the symbols – success. I find the spa symbol and gentle cool air wafts out of the grid. It’s like accidental leaving the bedroom window open on a summer’s evening, remarkably soothing actually.

I prep myself for sleep – lights off, ear plugs in, eye mask on and settle down to pretend I’m at home with the window open. Would you believe it works? When I wake up it’s 8am. I am beyond excited. I take off my eye mask to see the sun edging around the curtains and Denis reading.

“I had a great night’s sleep.” he says.

I give him the look, the one that says, the opposite of – I’m so happy for you. But he can’t see the look he’s still reading and to be honest in the light of this new day in Osaka I had a great night’s sleep too. Great is relative.

“What’s that thing you’re not supposed to do with chopsticks?”

We made it to KIX airport in… (to be precise) the sea, close to Osaka. When they built the airport they also built the island it sits on. And there’s one long road and rail bridge linking this island to the mainland. Looking at these facts before we arrived I did wonder if our most challenging journey might be trying to find the bridge but no like everything else here so far, it was easy. To get to the bridge – go up the escalator and walk outside in a straight line from the door of the terminal, you can’t miss the train station on your right, the ticket office is opposite it, now take the train off the island. Could it be that easy?

First, a nice cup of tea. It’s 10am and a sunny 10 degrees (Celsius) but our body clocks think it’s 2am and someone’s left the sun on. It was 2am yesterday when we got out of bed to go to the airport in Dublin. And now 24 hours later we are keeping things simple and familiar and we head to Starbucks. Yes, I know we should be trying a Japanese cafe but hold judgment… it’s Starbucks but with a Japanese flavour.

Shiori (the daughters-in-law responsible for us being here) introduced me to oolong tea once and I loved it. Now back to today, as I’ve already had coffee for breakfast on the plane somewhere over the Gobi Desert, I asked for tea. Normally, I drink green tea but their green tea was something with milk (and I don’t like milk) but I remembered the oolong and asked if she had that… She did and was very impressed that we (obviously, non Japanese) knew what it was. Taking the chance to chat with an English speaker we told her about Shiori and exchanged addresses (not really) and promised to be back to see her when we are leaving Japan (maybe.) So far the welcome from everyone here is real and very encouraging.

As I sat drinking my oolong tea I noticed a woman come in and wheel her bag to a counter, take out her phone and charger and plug it into a socket. Nothing unusual yet. Then she walked off. She left her bag and phone on the counter and queued for her order. In the airport. At a Starbucks in this busy airport it seems to be true that your luggage and your phone are safe on their own.

Denis hadn’t notice this because he was busy working out how to get tickets for the train. The one to take us off the man made island. Turns out you can get a card called ICOCA and top it up and then tap as you go into and out of each train station. And it’s tourist friendly. We left Starbucks went up the escalator, walked straight ahead, the ticket office was on the left, we stood in a very orderly queue and when we reached the top we were guided to the next available desk. There a lady with excellent English explained her window was cash only and how much did we want to put in our card. We had one Japanese Yen note, I got in Dublin airport worth 10,000 Yen (about €75) Plenty for a few days train travel. We would have chatted more but the queue guide was directing the next customers so we just asked where the train to Rinku-town was, she sent us across to the station, down the escalator, get on the silver train and stay on board for one stop.

Tapping our new cards as we went through the barrier, we spotted the escalator and at the bottom there was a silver train waiting. We checked the map above the door, yes this is correct and waited the 4 minutes – exactly- until our train left. We knew it was about to depart when we saw the white gloved conductor check the doors. One stop later we were at our hotel.

We’re here now sitting on a sofa in reception trying to stay awake as we wait for room check in to open. Should we sleep? (Please say yes.) Or should we stay awake until it gets dark and our body clocks line up with time over here in the East? Ok… it doesn’t matter what you say, while I was typing Denis seems to have dropped off. He’s snoring very quietly beside me. Maybe I’ll just close my eyes for a minute…