Kansai Osaka Airport Review

Anyone visiting Osaka will be coming in here, and I am going to share some general information about what is available here at the Osaka Airport.

On a trip here with mainstream journalists from Malaysia and working with the Osaka Government Tourism Board (OGTB) and Tourism Malaysia Osaka (TM Osaka), our group was taken on a tour around the airport. 

Therefore, we flew via Malaysia Airlines on this trip, and on our arrival, we were greeted by the head of the Malaysia Airlines Osaka office, together with the representatives of TM Osaka and OGTB.

The seven-hour flight was decent, but my important tip is to get a window seat or one by the door or bathroom if you want a comfortable flight here. 

You should also know that there has been a steep rise in the number of Malaysians visiting Osaka, namely Muslim tourists who seek the Japanese experience here. 

They put in the effort to ensure that travellers felt comfortable here, and I was very comfortable. Popular Japanese brands caught my eye as we did a walk through the main shopping areas in the airport departure area. 

Other shops were more general and straightforward, offering travellers what they needed before and after a trip. Souvenir shops were abundant, with all sorts of Japanese names, while speciality stores were also available. 

So, if you are a shopping fanatic, bring that famous bag-in-bag and book that extra luggage for the flight back. (Bag-in-bag is how travellers put a medium bag inside a more giant luggage bag and pack the clothes in the medium bag)

For chocolate lovers, if you are hunting for that amazing Japanese Kit Kat selection, one store here sells the entire collection.

As I was walking through, I noticed the specialized Kit Kat display with at least 8 different flavours. Eight! Can you imagine that? Not one, not two, but eight!

Definitely a paradise for Japanese KitKat lovers, and the prices are quite decent too, priced at ¥600 to ¥800 per box, which works out to be around RM18 to RM24 (US$6 to $8).

Flavours include Kit Kat Wasabi, Green Tea, Red Bean, Strawberry Cheesecake and other unique stuff.

You know how friends and relatives always ask for Japanese Kit Kat when anyone goes to Japan? Well, this is your solution here in Osaka. 

The majority of the photos were taken in the airport’s common departure area, which is also open to the public. 

Others include Japanese fusion restaurants offering hamburgers, steaks and several Western choices. 

Therefore, these places are best visited before you depart Osaka, so give extra time before you check in for your flight.

In general, you can come here early for breakfast and explore Japanese food one last time before leaving Osaka. 

So, Muslims can now enjoy traditional Japanese cuisine, which is halal here at Osaka airport. Just take a look at the menu photos below. 

To use the facility, you need to inquire from the main information counter for them to open the prayer room for you. In total, there are three prayer rooms found around Kansai Airport which are;

It generally takes about one hour to travel to the city from the airport. 

They also have a dedicated area where free information booklets on Kansai and Osaka are displayed, and some of them are available in multiple languages.

Look out for the English ones, and at the time of writing this, there was none in Bahasa Malaysia. Most of the general information about places to go, places to shop, festivals and so on is available here.

I am still unsure about the Japanese SIM card and if it works well with Malaysian or Southeast Asian mobile phones, but you should double check this.

Osaka Free WiFi services.

I just used my hotel WiFi whenever I got the chance. Several places around Osaka offer free WiFi, and WiFiso the Osaka Free WiFi, which is easy to log into.

Just connect to it. A browser will automatically pop up. Put in your email, and you can use it for 15 minutes. When it disconnects, just do the same step. All hotels in Osaka have free WiFi.

Some companies in Malaysia even offer portable WiFi before you leave the country. At the Mobile Kiosk Center here, you can even rent Japanese smartphones in English. 

The staff here are all Japanese who speak English, so there should be no problems with the language unless you do not speak any English at all, I suggest you ask them for the Malaysian manager or staff to talk to. 

At Osaka Airport, smoking rooms are available on all levels. In the departure hall, the smoking room is just next to Counter A, where the MAS and AirAsia X check-in counters are located. 

There is a fee charged according to size. The company is called Your Wrap. 

These are very trustworthy services but please do not put valuables in your check-in luggage, never ever do that. 

A medium-sized box will cost around ¥800, and you can check in these boxes on your flight. Note that, depending on your airline, any excess baggage will be charged. 

Money Changer is a very Malaysian or Southeast Asian term, so you will not see it all over Japan. Rates are based on the banks and are usually decent.

However, it is always better to change your Japanese yen in Malaysia or your home country before visiting Osaka, Japan. 

Inside, you will find machines that sell popular Japanese coffee brands such as Suntory, Boss, UCC, and many others.

They also sell them in hot or cold, and prices are always around ¥100 to ¥130 per can. Other items found here include soft drinks and cigarettes.

Why? All because of the security checks, which can take quite a long. As Malaysian Airlines and AirAsia X flights depart in the late morning, many other international flights also depart around the same time.

Therefore, give at least 30 to 45 minutes just for the security checking line. (Where you need to remove everything for the airport scanners). 

Why am I saying this? Simply because many travellers like to finish their small change or get those last-minute goodies and souvenirs from local convenience stores like 7-11, Lawson and Family Mart. 

Once you go inside after immigration, you will only have the choice of duty-free shops. Again, there are a ton of items to buy here, too.

If you are looking for traditional Japanese food souvenirs or Kit Kats, the duty-free shops have them all there.

The best part is that a lot of them display the contents of the snacks for you to see, while some English explanations are also available for some of the Japanese snacks.