Japan Trip Dec 07 (recap) - Day 2

DAY 2
22nd Dec 07 (Sat) – 6.20am

Guess what I just saw? Snow-scape! The sun’s not up yet so I couldn’t get a clear picture for you guys to see. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for a picture on a snow-scape sunrise further down the road though. The train’s equipped with heater, so ain’t feeling the bite of the frost yet.


22nd Dec 07 (Sat) – 8am ++
Just some shots that I took…















22nd Dec 07 (Sat) – 10.36am
I made it! Less than 5mins of alighting Akebono train at Aomori, I found my train and boarded it (Super Hakujo 9) just in time! As there’s no seat available, you can imagine a damn sleepy and hungry me, half-sitting on my luggage en route to Hakodate. The journey took approx. 3hrs.

The snow’s an interesting sight. But after seeing it constantly for some time, it made me real sleepy. But I couldn’t bring myself to sleep as I fear I would miss my stop.

It’s hot on the train, but I couldn’t take off my winter coat as it’s freezing when the train doors open.


22nd Dec 07 (Sat) – 11.29am
Within the 3-hr span, about 10 pple had ‘visited’ the toilet that’s just beside where I’m standing (plus a few others who didn’t get a seat). But 2 of them had the same unpleasant surprise.

There’s a panel of buttons outside the toilet door. Meaning, the opening and closing of the door was done electronically. You would have to press one of the buttons to open the door and press another button (inside the toilet itself) to close it. Uncertain if it was the two ladies who didn’t lock the doors properly or if the door was malfunctioning, they were caught in the act (at separate times by different people) of peeing with their pants down when people thought the toilet was empty and opened the door!

As you might have guessed, I saw everything… haiz. And I don’t think I was the only one. The only thing that I found comforting was that I needn’t use the toilet while I was on the train.


22nd Dec 07 (Sat) – 12 noon ++
Got myself a kani (crab) bento at 840 yen before I transfer to another train from Hakodate and Aomori. Sure looked appetizing, doesn’t it?





22nd Dec 07 (Sat) – 12 noon ++
Additional pictures that I took en route to Sapporo from Hakodate...















22nd Dec 07 (Sat) – 5pm++
Here I am, finally at Sapporo to see White illumination for myself!










To be honest, I thought the X'mas decorations @ Orchard's nicer. But it lacked of the "white x'mas" factor. Sapporo on the other hand, won hands down with its snowy weather - it sure gave me the X'mas feel :)

And here’s tanukikoji (shopping district)...



For images on the scenic views I took along the trip, check out the link underneath my image on the top left hand corner. More details later!! Jya ne!

Japan Trip Dec 07 (recap) - Day 1

DAY 1
21st Dec 07 (Fri) – 10.16am

Hooray!!! I was just thinking of asking the cabin crew if I could change seats as I noticed the seats in the next aisle were empty. In that case, I would have 2 seats to myself and going in and out for toilet trips would be such a breeze, without having to worry about how to ask the person beside me to give way (I had a window seat by the way).

However, before I could even open my mouth to ask, the guy beside me made the request (he’s rather big sized). Yippeeee!!! There. I had 2 seats to myself 

But sadly, as were climbing the altitudes a while ago, I couldn’t take a pix of the scenery below – where you literally see and understand where the infinite line lies; the line that joins the sky and the sea below. It blends in so perfectly that you can hardly decide where the sky and sea collides! As we continue to ascend the altitudes, you could see “yourself” splicing through layers and layers of thin clouds… cool~ something that I’d never seen when I travel to other countries.

And interestingly, ANA has a sky camera that allows you to see what the pilots were seeing real time. So that’s kinda cool too. :P

Temperature at Narita airport is currently 1 degrees. Wonder if I’d freeze to death when I’m there… come to think of it, have you ever seen a frozen ikan bilis before? Eeks!!


21st Dec 07 (Fri) – 5.30pm
At last I’m at Narita and had exchanged my JR pass. However, I was told that the tickets to the night train, Hokutosei, to Sapporo were all sold out. I could check into Cassiopeia (another night train) but it would cost me about S$400 just for one single trip! With Cassiopeia, you need to pay for 2 bunks even if you travel alone.

Thus, it’s either I take a longer route (which included changing multiple times but I wouldn’t have to pay extra since I held the JR pass) and reach Sapporo in the late afternoon or bunk into a hotel nearby and try my luck for the night train next day. I chose the first:

Narita Airport  Tokyo  Ueno  Aomori  Hakodate  Sapporo


21st Dec 07 (Fri) – 8pm++
Here I am at Ueno JR station. Luckily I brought my thick winter coat and not my sis’ brown coat, or I would’ve froze to death. As I jostled amongst the crowd at the station, there were many Japanese men wearing their long black trench coat, rushing for their trains. For a moment, I was captivated. Not that they were handsome, but they seemed real charismatic for that moment. If only Singapore had 4 seasons…

With more than 2 hours to go before my next train, I decided to venture out of the station (after parking my luggage in the lockers situated inside the JR station at 500 yen), followed the crowd, in search of a hearty meal.

That led me to a curry rice shop across the street. What I had to do was to buy a dinner coupon via a vending machine and pass the ticket over to the man behind the counter and wait for my meal. Here’s the place where I’d my meal…


Japan’s really a nation of vending machines by the way. You can buy cigarettes, drinks, meal coupons and etc from vending machine.

Back to the meal topic… It was a quiet meal as I didn’t have to open my mouth to speak or order… except for the occasional “Sumimasen” (excuse me) and “arigatou” (thanks).

As I sat alongside with the other Japanese, mainly salary men, I began to ponder if this was their daily lifestyle – where they sat alongside strangers for a meal. Quiet. Concentrated. And left almost immediately (after they finish their meal) as they did with their arrival. I wouldn’t call it anti-social… perhaps a down time to recluse and temporarily become an invisible man in the real world?

It was then that I began to notice the salary man beside me. Though I couldn’t see his face (since we were sitting side by side), I began to wonder if he looked like a Japanese actor I’d seen before. Of course, I would not assume he was the actor. Just implying that the feeling he illuminated then seemed similar. For those who were familiar with Japanese movies, try and think back of character “Itsuki” from the movie “Love Letter”.

Before long, I realized that many customers had came and gone and I was like the last one “standing” and munching through my katsu curry don (pork curry rice). Soon, it was time to head back to the station.

Along the way back to station, I took a pix with a gigantic panda display…


As I stood along the platform in my winter coat and barang barang beside me, everything around me seemed so surreal… perhaps it was the weather... or perhaps it was just me.


21st Dec 07 (Fri) – 11.59pm
Now I’m on my way to Aomori from Ueno, via Akebono limited express train. The lady at the JR office had helped me to book a bed in the ladies only cabin. How sweet 

However, I was given the top bunk bed as the rest were sold out. So imagine the tough time I had to bring my luggage up the bunk and had to really steal my way down in the middle of the night to get to the toilet. Who knew that opening a pack of tissue on a train could be that loud…

A tip for all, you see a table by the window there? You can actually pull the sides of the steel pole in front of it and it would unfold into a ladder for you to climb up to your bed, as shown in the picture. But of course, I didn’t know it until much later. By then, it was too late. I was accustomed to climbing up and down by stepping on the edge of the table. Hahahaha…


Contrary to my expectations, the train’s equipped with a squatter toilet (and not those fancy toilet bowls that could warm or wash your butt), that’s akin to those trains in Taiwan. Except that those in Japan were cleaner.


For images on the scenic views I took along the trip, check out the link underneath my image on the top left hand corner. More details later!! Jya ne!

Photos taken during my Japan (winter trip)...

Instructions:
1) Click on the screen below
2) Wait for it to load/ play
3) Suggest that you click on the next button manually so that it will not crash when loading.. :P



For bigger view and better colour preview, and also to see the captions to each pix:
1) Go to the top left hand corner and click on the lnk juz underneath my pix
2) You will get directed to the photoalbum site and click on the photo beside "Japan Trip Dec 07 (Winter) - Sapporo/ Hakodate/ Otaru/ Tokyo"
3) You will then get directed to a page with lots of thumbnails. Suggest you select the "slideshow" option to view
4) wait for the images to load and click on the play button at the bottom bar of the slideshow window. :P

More details on the journey much later... jya ne!