Day 1 (Part 2): Narita - New Chitose - Sapporo

For Day 1 (Part 1): Singapore - Hong Kong, click here.

For Day 2 (Part 1): Curb Market, click here.

Transiting at Narita Airport

Touched down at Narita Terminal 2 at around 3pm. Had quite a lot of time as my next flight to Sapporo was at 6.50pm, so here's a random shot of the air traffic control towers I took while walking around.

B-mobile unlimited 3G for 14 days

Needed a way to contact my Japanese friends over LINE and whatsapp so decided to go with B-mobile. It's about 4,000 yen (50 SGD) for 14 days which is really worth it in my opinion. You can also use it to make internet calls over Skype etc despite what their website tells you. More details can be found in the following link: b-mobile visitor SIM 14 days prepaid.

Black shoyu ramen @ Ramen Kagetsu Arashi (らーめん花月嵐)
Address: Central Building 5F, Narita Airport Terminal 1
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

First meal in Japan!~ As I've posted on Facebook, I've struck black gold wandering around Narita for a good eat. The pork slice melts in the mouth, the egg was firm with an extremely runny and flavoured yolk, the noodles perfectly al dente. The only gripe I had was that the black shoyu can become somewhat salty over time and the noodles absorbed the soup a bit too fast.

Lovely cherry blossoms by the carpark, taken while I was transferring from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 earlier on.

Taken from the runway viewing balcony at Narita Airport Terminal 1 5F

Was told that it would be unlikely that there will still be cherry blossoms in the Tokyo area by early April but guess I was in luck. The weather had remained rather chilly which was really uncharacteristic for Tokyo then. Spent a good half an hour just watching planes go by as the sun began to set, enjoying the occasional breeze and digesting my good.

Ice cream vending machine right by the escalators connecting the basement levels to the ground floors of Terminal 2.

Boarding at Narita Domestic Terminal

Narita Domestic Terminal waiting area for boarding

A 1000 yen voucher for the delay and best of all, I can use it right by the ANA souvenir and food corner!

Sadly enough my domestic flight to Hokkaido was also delayed but this I had already expected given the many warnings my friends had given me. For info, I was taking advantage of the Experience Japan fare promotion that ANA had, which allowed for you to fly point to point within Japan for a flat fee of 10,800 yen (about 130 SGD). It is really worth the fare (apart from domestic budget carriers which may not have the timings and dates you need) and you can check it out here. The difference was that ANA crew and ground staff were extremely apologetic about it and had given all of us 1000 yen vouchers each for the inconvenience caused. Now this is good customer service, some more on domestic flights and not international flights. Took the opportunity to buy some ANA FESTA goods (the airplane, note pad and pens) which are exclusive to their domestic boarding area.

No free food but... 

... they recently pushed out a promotion for free hot drinks. This includes their much acclaimed beef soup tingie which I totally forgot the name of.

From New Chitose Airport to Sapporo

In the end I reached New Chitose Airport slightly before 10 pm, so absolutely no chance of doing any sightseeing around the airport as most of the restaurants and shops close by 9 pm. Had originally wanted to check out the streetcar dining district and the ramen hall on 3F. Strangely enough, my luggage came out with a priority tag (had a really pleasant experience checking in at Narita despite having a near intelligible name to the ground staff, that must have helped) and off I went trying to catch the soon departing JR train to Sapporo.

JR Rapid Airport to Sapporo, about 40 minutes ride
1,070 yen (about 13 SGD)

My phone died on the train to Sapporo, thank goodness I had wisely decided to bring my mobile charger. Had booked a single room at Sapporo Aspen Hotel which was a 2 minutes walk from Sapporo JR station north exit. Was pleasantly surprised that the staff had been waiting for my arrival and had upgraded me to a twin room on the higher floors!~ So here's a photo:

Really liked the coffee table and sofa chairs.
Single room booking @ Sapporo Aspen Hotel: about 5,000 yen (about 60 SGD) per night

So I ended up being totally late for my already rather late supper appointment with Kanade. thank goodness I've been able to contact her since activating the b-mobile SIM card in Narita. The original plan was to go to the Nemuro Hanamaru revolving sushi restaurant at JR Stellar Place which closes at 11 pm, but by the time we met it was already close to 11 pm. What's open in Sapporo after 11pm? Izakayas such as yakitori-yas.

Kushidori Sapporo Station North Exit (串鳥 札幌駅北口店)
Address: 北海道札幌市中央区北7条西4丁目
Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

Ah yes, the star of the night, the beef hire (top stick) that Kanade say I must must order. Cost about 300 yen for just a stick, but my god was it tenderliciously done.

The shio chicken wing (left stick) was absolutely spot on, the salt crackling with the crisp skin. Another one of my favourite.

The grilled bacon seaweed maki (right stick) turned out to be surprisingly savoury with the bacon not being overly salty and the sesame seasoning giving it a nice tang.

[As per the many requests, I am going to be putting in the addresses of the places I've ate at but it's too tiring for me to type them both in English and Japanese. So I've included the full Japanese address which you can directly copy and paste into your Google Maps for easy GPS-ing!~ Also, I realise that it's quite wonky to key in the address in Romanji as Google Maps only read them in a certain format.]

Thank goodness Kanade stayed about 10 minutes away from the east exit of Sapporo JR station if not I'll feel really really bad. The weather was absolutely chilly in Sapporo (-3 deg C) as we trundled through the snow plotched street to Kushidori. This meant heated shochu to warm our bodies and it's been quite a while since I had quite a lot of alcohol which made the photos that we took absolutely horrible to look at (I turn red super easily when I drink alcohol). Was an absolute blast talking to her, and by the time I got back to the hotel (which was just opposite) it was already past 1 am!~

Had a really yummy kaisen don the next morning, click here to see where I had it!~