From Kyoto to Osaka to Sapporo by plane
Now I am in Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido, near Russia and North Korea, famed for its bears, beer and potatoes.
I am writing both updates at once this evening, so chronologically this may not make sense, buy in the interests of symmetry, I must do 2 updates per day, otherwise the apple cart will be upset and I may never recover.
To go to Kansai airport, the airport in the Ocean that is sinking and therefore has another identical one along side it they will move to and then add more rocks to the one that has sunk, you must first go from Kyoto to Osaka on a train. This train then goes to the airport that is nowhere near Osaka, as is the Japanese tradition.
The train ticket was surprisingly cheap, but I almost missed out on cheap. I was going to take a bus that was about $30, but then I saw a deal for foreign passport holders to buy an ICOCA card and a $15 Haruka express train ticket to the airport, for $25. However if you already have an ICOCA card, I have 2, you can just get the $15 ticket. So that was the greatest deal ever.
It is about a 90 minute ride, at first very fast, then it does a lap around Osaka very slowly. Still its faster than the bus and half the price.
Once at Kansai airport, its kind of like 1/2 a new airport day. Because whilst I have been here twice before, I have never flown domestically. It turns out the domestic terminal is awesome, with about 73 restaurants to choose from, or you can have a convenience store $2 sandwich like I did.
My flight today was Jetstar, and about 2 hours, and completely uneventful. Left on time, arrived on time, I got row 2, they accepted my bags, no questions about carry on, just like a regular flight. Except for the lung cancer. My plane was full of lung cancer sufferers. It must have been. Bits of lung were being hacked up all over the place. I thought people might die. But thats just Japanese smokers who cant smoke for a period of time. They need more smoke to soothe their angry cancerous lungs.
Once you arrive in Sapporo, you are of course, nowhere near Sapporo, as is the Japanese tradition of placing airports in other cities. Instead you are in Chitose.
I bought my awesome value East South Hokkaido JR East Tokyo region including non JR lines for select location for use on 6 days of customer choice within a 14 day period pass, and got on the train to Sapporo.
This takes just over 30 minutes, no smoking here either, so lung expulsion continued. Then I just had a 40 minute walk to my hotel in the freezing air dragging my suitcase almost getting run over as I looked at what appears to be an awesome city, more on that shortly.
My regular morning coffee at Starbucks was differnt today in Kyoto, I got a picture and a message. I have no idea what it says, but the cat she drew seems to love me.
The view down into Kyoto station from the top of the Isetan store is as great as ever.
Cloudy and smoggy sky today. I have taken this photo before on a previous trip, its the only place on the roof you can get around the darkly tinted glass to take a decent photo. Japan hates you to enjoy a view.
Time for breakfast. What better breakfast can there be than shrimp filled deep fried patty with creamy potato salad?
This is my limited express grand rapid airport special service Haruka.
Proof that I went through Osaka, the Umeda sky building. See previous trip reports for views from the roof.
Japan preventing me from experiencing the view again by erecting a wall between the train and the ocean on the bridge that goes across to Kansai.
Jetstar check in, no line.
I should have had this for lunch. A lot of vegetables.
One of many restaurant streets in the domestic terminal. I dont understand where all the people were from because there are not that many flights, perhaps people come out to the airport island just to eat at the slightly more expensive restaurants?
I had an hour to kill and steps to get, so I walked into the international check in area. Not very busy here.
My plane, A320, quiet.
There is the bridge back to naturally occurring land masses. Photo timed to capture taking off plane. Note the smog. Maybe Hokkaido has less smog.
Now I am in Hokkaido, new airport! Arrival hall is bland.
And here is my huge hotel room, it is one of 3 APA hotels within 2 blocks of each other. This one is Susukino Ekimae Minami.
Another view of my huge room, theres enough room between my bed and the window that has no view for another bed.
Riding the ferris wheel in Sapporo
The city area of Sapporo is huge.
I am surprised by how huge and colorful it is. Like I said above, I walked the length of it to get to my hotel which is in the true city centre of Susukino.
I dont really know where to start looking and eating, and eating some more and then walking around and looking because everywhere is colored lights and lots and lots of people.
Halloween parties seem to already be going on, with girls dressed like whores with tails and devils trident spears giggling as they fall over in their stupid heels whilst crossing the street.
Salary men in their 50's fill halls of electronic games busy trying to convince the ninja school girl gang to lift their skirts after defeating the evil tortoise creatures.
Covered shopping streets are actually full of people, and restaurants, cooking things I have not seen before, and trying to set me on fire, see below.
I am here in Sapporo for 5 nights, my longest stay in any city on this trip, my hotel room is great and I think I have made the right choice as far as evening activities and things to do by devoting so much time here.
Before heading off into the night I stopped by night temple to wonder why it exists.
Photo number 400! Already! Start of the neon streets.
Impressively lit corner.
More neon, the trees look nice, daylight will reveal if I need to pass out from amazing color shock.
Covered shopping street, look at all the people, wearing coats. Despite it being 3 degrees, I didnt actually feel cold. There was no wind to speak of.
Proof I was in Sapporo.
Dangerous dinner. I am sitting very close to the blow torch action. Multiple times I checked my eyebrows to see if I still had eyebrows.
The picture doesnt do the meal justice, it was very nice, but probably very bad for healthy. It is not curry so much as soup, but it has hamburger, spam, brocoli, carrot, tomato, onions and cheese melted onto the top of it.
Basically its like the hamburger hot plate you get in a lot of places, put in some kind of soup, with cheese on top and then blow torched.
Nightclub. Great name. Not sure where they think the booty is going to come from though. The most booty of anyone nearby belongs to me.
The store in the background is a card trading, hobby, robot model, manga shop. So they have a stage area with seating out the front for all the shows they put on. Nerds.
Dance dance revolution is old hat, its Super DJ Battle now. A crowd has formed to watch these guys ghost fade the decks.
Time to resurrect an old tradition, and go on a ferris wheel, nice view.
They had absolutely zero customers beside me, and the attendents on the roof of the building were asleep at their posts, and then really confused that a middle aged angry white guy wants to ride the ferris wheel on his own.
That lit up corner is still lit up when viewed from the ferris wheel.
Proof I rode the ferris wheel on my own.