Tag: japan

Shinjuku to HND

We woke up at 5:00am to get ready for our return to Manila. We took an Uber to the bus terminal (nobody wants to walk that distance again). Tokyo is designed for travelers and removes much of the friction of going about.

ANA Flight from HND to MNL

Turbulent flight on the way back to Manila.

NAIA Terminal 3

I almost forgot how crowded it was at the arrival section: men wearing work-variety barong standing around, people selling real estate and cellphone load, and a duty free stall that did not make sense to me.

Shinjuku

Tokyo is colder due to wind chill.

To kill time before the Ghibli schedule, we went to Tokyu Hands to buy small stuff. One group went to Harajuku. We re-convened at the JR station (this station is huge) before heading to Ghibli.

Studio Ghibli

The trip to Ghibli was worth it. The first exhibit had a zoetrope, which for some reason had brought such joy when I saw it (a robot with pigeons flying).

The museum had so much attention to detail, even the diaper changer had to be on theme.

One section of the museum was devoted to the craftsman’s workshop, where several drafts are shown. One room was specifically for food and how the animators studied how to draw food by simulation (they had lifelike replicas).

We were able to make it to the 9:00 bus for the airport.

Sapporo to Tokyo

Glad we came to the airport early because the check in line is long. It took us more than one hour to check in and get past security.

The food selection past the security line is not so good. Only coffee and pastries are being sold. There will be a lot of dinner options once we settle in Shinjuku.

Turbulent ride on our flight to Tokyo.

Shinjuku

There’s a stark contrast with the number of people on the streets of Shinjuku vs Sapporo. We took the long route and walked with our luggage to the Airbnb place (2 kilometres away). They’ve ignored my suggestion of taking a taxi/Uber. I was a bit annoyed and was in a bad mood for a good part of the evening.

We had dinner at Kabukicho (took and Uber to get there). My wife and I retraced the places we’ve visited in 2015.

Onsen and Sapporo Beer Museum

Driving in the Philippines teaches you a lot of bad habits such as swerving. We returned the car without incident (hooray!). We were too lazy to go to the gas station so we ended up paying a premium for gas.

Thinking of getting a fast-charge power bank (Anker) this afternoon (update: it cost me 5k yen).

We bought tickets to an onsen, which includes a round-trip bus pass. The onsen experience was worth the long ride. We had authentic Indian lunch after our bath. The resort had an outdoor pool where you can sit naked in hot water while snowing.  Very refreshing.

Went to Sapporo Beer Museum and had dinner at the beer garden (steak). Sapporo also produces a good stout beer. Today is my brother-in-law’s birthday.

We took a taxi back to the train station. I have a slight buzz after drinking a litre of beer. We were lucky to catch the 6:30pm shuttle back to the hotel.

Sapporo

As expected, there’s a Family Mart near the hotel.

While walking to the car rental, I slipped on black ice. Laptop is OK. My right arm absorbed the impact. Apparently, my international drivers license is not valid for Japan due to lack of required stamps (note to self: renew in Quezon City instead of Makati).

My mother-in-law did all the driving. It was a painful experience, having three of her children yell at her for every mistake made. Eventually my brother-in-law took the role of navigator (which we joked he could be a good Waze voice).

We went to a historical village somewhere up north of Sapporo (where we had lunch) and a glass museum. We drove to Otaru late afternoon to have dinner and to take pictures of the famous canal, as shown in the movie Kita Kita (we saw plenty of Chinese tourists there).

My thermal insulation worked well today versus yesterday, but my right wrist hurts from this morning’s fall.

I noticed my iPhone’s battery is starting to fail, probably due to cold temperatures.

Sapporo

My sinuses are acting up due to the cold. I wore the wrong shoes today and I did not wear any thermals underneath. I don’t even have a scarf!

We went to the chocolate factory and bought ice cream and biscuits. Now I have enough gifts (biscuits) for my co-workers next week.

We went to lunch at a tourist trap and I had a bowl of the freshest sea urchin and salmon roe. We ordered a couple of grilled fishes, too. Japan is where I could spend 5k yen on a single meal without hesitation.

We went to the Snow Festival — the city square was closed to traffic and had several snow sculptures on display. I ate a deer BBQ. We stopped at a Starbucks where I was able to browse the Internet before heading to dinner at a Ramen place. My mother-in-law slipped while we were looking at the snow sculptures. She seemed to enjoy the displays a lot — especially the Minions.

The shopping district is near Odori station.

We made our way to the shuttle service to take us back to the hotel. One guy dropped his wallet on the way to the bus and I gave it back to him.

Author’s Note: I recently found my notes I wrote during our family trip to Sapporo more than four years ago.

NAIA Terminal 3

We Filipinos prefer to be arbitrary. This does not mix well with airports where you want people to easily flow to their flights. In the men’s room, there was a human hand towel dispenser. If I had OCD I would have freaked out when someone handed me a paper towel with their bare hands.

We saw a group of Filipinos heading to Japan on what would seem to be official government business (some were carrying diplomatic red passports). Their clothes for travel are relatively new which would suggest they are not regular travelers (i.e., not assigned to a foreign post). I checked the Internet and there does not seem to be a roadshow in Japan (I could be wrong). From what I could tell, these are delegates to a JICA conference.

ANA Flight to Narita

All Nippon Airlines seems to be an all-Boeing fleet, just like Alaskan Air or Southwest. Food was good (I had chicken teriyaki). They also served food with actual silverware!

Connecting flight to Sapporo

(edit September 2022) We had to transfer to another flight to Sapporo. I remembered having to wait longer than usual for our next flight.