Wakayama: DAY -1 (Monday, July 29th, 2016) – Arrival and Kishi Station

I with my teacher arrived at Kansai International Airport in Osaka at 8.30 am. After immigration and baggage claim, we met the organizer who had waited for us. There were also 10 participants and 10 teachers from foreign countries who had arrived.

Before we left the airport, I bought a SIM Card from a vending machine as it might be not easy to find SIM Card vendor in Wakayama.

It took around 1 hour by car to go from the airport to Comfort Hotel in Wakayama.

My first impression of Wakayama was it was a calm, humble, and peaceful city. We hardly found traffic jam.

After we put our luggage in the hotel, the organizers guested us a delightful lunch in an authentic Japanese restaurant.

A Tsuru origami on each table

The restaurant itself was remarkable. The building was spacious and surrounded by beautiful garden. The delicacies that were served include tempura moriawase, rice with fish, and udon noodle soup.

Lunch

As there was no program in this day because we were still waiting for the arrival of participants from some other countries, we had a free time. We could choose to take a rest or go to nearby tourist attractions.

I with my new friend from Myanmar, Celia, went to Kishi Station to see its famously cute stationmaster, a cat named Nitama. It took 30 minutes by using a train of Wakayama Electric Railway to go to Kishi Station from Wakayama City. The train that we rode on was Toy Train. Toy Train, as its name would suggest, had a lot of adorable toys displays in it. Furthermore, the seats were covered in catchy flower patterns.

A selfie inside the Toy Train!

The building of the station was shaped like a cat. It had “TAMA” sign on it which was the name of the former cat stationmaster. Nitama herself was napping in her office, which was a converted ticket booth. There was also a souvenir shop with Tama-themed and Nitama-themed items. I bought pens, pencils, phone chains, and attractive can of “Tama Drops”.

Nitama, the recent station master

Adorable :3

Cat-shaped station

In the evening, we had dinner in a Japanese restaurant that was located right in front of the hotel.  The Japanese dinner consisted of dishes such as sushi, miso soup, tempura, seaweeds. I did enjoy Japanese cuisines!

Yummy Japanese dinner!