Monday, May 12, 2008

Hokkaido Trip - Day 1

DAY 1 SINGAPORE – CHITOSE (VIA TOKYO) (Meals on Board) - 05/02/08
Assemble at Singapore Changi Airport for your flight to Tokyo.



Our flight was at 8am, so breakfast was served at 9:30am. Or lunch. Whatever you called it. We have a choice (no, it's not either eat or don't eat), either pork or seafood. Dad and mom chose seafood..



Don't really look delicious lehz..anyway I can't take seafood..cause maybe previous night din really sleep, therefore lips start to swell again. And when lips swell, it's time to keep off seafood for awhile..at least until nicer ones are available. =P



I chose the pork lasagne. From top left: Some berry cheesecake dessert (damn nice), bread and butter, mineral water, shrimp salad, ham and main course.



Pork lasagne. Not very nice also lah. But I believe it tastes nicer than the seafood one. LoL. And it's saltish!! Argh.



At about 1:30pm, ice cream was served. LoL. Not bad the service. They give you a small tub of ice cream and tissue paper. After ice cream, they serve water/tea. Nice huh.



Reached Narita International Airport le!! At 3pm ok!! Now to check out and take bus to another airport. Sianz. No direct flight or whatever.



Me and mom on bus to Haneda Airport, which is like 1hr away. We will be taking a flight from Haneda Airport to Chitose Airport, and then take a bus to our hotel. -_-"



The flats at Tokyo all flat flat de. And the rooms are damn small. I know cause 9 years ago, I stayed at Narita Hotel. The toilet is so damn small and the room is so damn small. Everything also small. Except prices.



Sianz. Traffic jam. Most of the cars in Japan has GPS. And it seemed that nobody loves driving Ferrari or Porche. Cause mostly see normal cars like Toyota Corolla or Honda Fit/Stream etc. Once or twice can see Nissan Skyline. *Drool* Why no S2000.....



The toilet at Haneda Airport. Can wash your anus and your bidet. As my tour leader said, many females who used the bidet to clean their *ahem*, have no use for males anymore. LoL. Didn't dare to try though.



Was playing with this. For 25secs you can hear water gushing..like waterfall. I guess it's akin to a mother whistling for the son to pee. It didn't induce me to pee though. It sounded loud and irritating.



Since our flight is departing at 7pm (SG time), we would need to settle our own dinner. From B1 all the way to level 4 of Haneda Airport are the restaurants. Mostly ramen or some normal Jap restaurants. Since we were rushing for time (615pm liao), we finally settled on bread at a cafe, much to the anger of my mom who wants to eat ramen.



My chicken breast with egg on charcoal bread. Not bad lah. With a few simple words like 'Sumimasen, eigo ga dekimasu ka' and 'Ichi *points here*, ichi *points there*', I managed to buy my family our "dinner".



Dad's prawn salad or is it seafood bread? He took a tomato juice as well. The guy serving us was rather cute, si boon si boon one. And to my question, he crosses his hands. Apparently he doesn't know English. (Eigo ga dekimasu ka = Do you speak/understand English)



They have a smoking room in the airport! Nobody smokes (rarely lah) outside the airport, cause 1: it's cold and 2: it's inconsiderate to non-smokers. They have many of this kind of room, where they sell ciggies (dispensing machine) and drinks, and have long tables which are actually ash trays. You can stand around the table and smoke or sit down. Mostly smoke liao then go out. It's kinda nice. Maybe Singapore should have this? Minus the dispensing machine that is. Like this the non-smokers won't complain liaoz. If I weren't with my parents, I would have gone in and bought myself a packet of Marlboro Menthol Lights..cause it's damn smooth. Sheesh!!



This is the map of the Haneda Airport. Can see it's rather small right? Anyway have to go gate 52. And our seats are 52E, F and G. The boarding pass not worth mentioning cause it's not even my name. =)



These are actually layered cakes! Similar to our kueh lapis. I bought a similar one outside (this is the check in area liao), and it costs about ¥1000, which is like around S$14. For 9 pieces. What you expect..Japan lehz.



This is the banana cake after cutting. Japanese take pride in their food; they use their heart to make it, and they use their heart to package it. So everything there is nicely packaged for the consumers. Quite thoughtful hor? Wanted to bring back, but the expiry date was on 9th May. So had to finish it.



Reached the hotel about 10pm, which is like 11pm Japan time. Dotz. Damn late. And it was raining on our way from Chitose airport to our hotel. By the time reach hotel, the strong winds were blowing liao. And when I talk, I can see the "smoke" coming out from my mouth. LoL. Quite fun. Stayed at APA hotel, which will be our hotel for these 2 nights. Room quite big, bigger than in Tokyo.

The light brown door is actually the wardrobe. And our slippers below. To the right is the fire escape door. Oh yah, did I mention that this hotel has an Onsen (温泉), but it's public and opened till 12am only? Which means it opens till 11pm SG time.



The left one..as mentioned above, is the fire escape door. The middle one is the front door. The right white door is the toilet door. First night nia I quarreled with dad already. He was wearing the yukata and I told him that other guests are wearing the yukata to the onsen. And he started getting defensive and started shouting. LoL. Mom was out getting hot water from level 8 (we were on lv 5) since they do not have a kettle for us to boil water.



The "small" toilet. Eh this is big already lah. What you're seeing is the toilet area nia. In Tokyo, this toilet size consists of a bath, a toilet AND a sink. So it's rather big le wor. Oh I tried the bidet on this toilet. It's shiok..keke.



To the right of the sink is a door. Careful of the step! It's like 10 inches up. And it leads to...



The bathroom!! Nice right!! I've my own bathtub!! OK I know I've to share with my parents. But I'm the only one who's gonna use it. They even put a sticker in the bathtub that tells you not to fill the water beyond the line. So thoughtful.



To the left of the bathtub is a small shower area. There is a chair in case you wana bathe like the Japanese. They would sit on the stool, fill the small tub with water from tap (see..got tap AND shower) and clean yourself before you soak in the tub. You can also adjust the temp of the water. I used the shower of course.



The bedroom. Eh this is big already hor. Try going to Tokyo's hotels. Smaller than this lor!! Guess who's sleeping in the corner facing the windows?



ME!! So happy! I've my own corner!! Somemore TV facing me. Was watching the TV till about 12+am (Japan time!). Cause after bathing, settling down, having our dinner of cup noodles, it's quite late liaoz. Heng next day morning call at 7am (Jpn time. I'm gonna use Japan's time from now. Just keep in mine that Japan is 1hr ahead of us. Meaning, SG 7am = JPN 8am). Had a very good night sleep. Maybe cause I was too tired. Yawn.


Some Notes:
For international flight, water must be checked in. Those that wana hand carry, liquids must not exceed 100ml in a clear container. However, for domestic flights, liquids cannot be checked in. It depends on your luck lor. Liquids must be hand carried for domestic flights.
It's not cold at all until there's cold air coming out from your mouth or nostrils. That's according to the Japanese and the tour guide. Cold is called
Samui (maybe it's samuii) in Japanese. It's actually bearable if there is no wind.
I'm not the youngest there. There're 2 girls who are 19 and 22 respectively. Their friend, another female, is same age as me. And there's another young couple, guy is 33 and the female is slightly older than me. The rest are all aunties and uncles and ah mas.
Tour guide is Gary, who is a Singaporean, is positioned at Japan. He will be showing us the sights and all. Madeline is our tour leader, and will fly with us to and from Japan.
Apa Hotel is not a truly onsen hotel, although it has onsen.
The onsen hotels in Hokkaido will change room everyday. Meaning the female onsen will be a male onsen the next day. So look carefully before going into the onsen. Do not treat for granted that it will stay like this.


3 comments:

Cobalt Paladin said...

The waterfall sound is to mask the peeing sound... Japanese ladies think that the peeing sound is rude and embarrassing. :p

雪语 said...

serious? LoL..they're just so nice right? But I found the noise irritating..lol

Michelle said...

I never really liked food served in planes (except business class, i guess). Woah look at that high tech bidet. I actually have one at home, but it's like the most basic of bidets I guess. only one knob that you turn so water comes out.