Hokkaido Trip Day 1 - JAL, Cold night, and Family Restaurant

Some Forewords

I have decided to write a travel (b)log about my recent trip to Hokkaido, Japan, with entries organized by day. Having been to Japan during my 2nd year of high school, which is a good 6-7 years ago, and given the fact that I have a keen interest in Japan (which drives me to study Japanese for 3 years in university), this is like a dream trip for me after such a long time. During my first trip to Japan, I went to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and the nearby areas, including Mt. Fuji. This time round, I am going to Hokkaido, located north of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It is the second largest island of Japan, with its 'capital city' Sapporo that has the 5th biggest population among cities of Japan (with Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Yokohama above it). I have known Hokkaido mostly from reading Manga (Japanese comics) which takes place in Hokkaido, such as Silver Spoon and Investor Z. I will bring up these 2 Mangas again later. From what I know, Hokkaido is blessed with wonderful nature delicious foods, with a cold weather due to its position which is already near Russia. I was very raring to go there, and sure enough, if I can roughly describe my wonderful journey in a few words: 'freezing the body but melting the heart'.

The Flight

The trip of course start with a flight to Japan, this time with Japan Airlines (JAL). I flew with JAL in my first Japan trip, and did not find the trip to be very pleasant, as I recalled, the seat leg space is not big enough to give comfort for around 7 hours flight from my hometown of Jakarta to Tokyo. The name JAL fades soon after that, following the bankruptcy of the airlines in 2009. Subsequently, ANA rises as the most famous Japanese airlines, up until this day. Little do I know that JAL rises from ashes, restructured, and take flight again, even listing back in stock market in 2012 (http://www.nippon.com/en/currents/d00051/).

Sure enough, this trip is made possible due to the fact that JAL is re-branding themselves to get their position back in the market. Tickets were available at cheap promotional price, and what surprises me most is that JAL's current aircraft is not what I experienced long time ago. The seat's leg space is wide (claimed to be wider up to 10cm relative to previous configuration), and the seat's thickness is reduced to create more leg space. I have never seen such a wide leg space for Asian airlines (I experienced extraordinarily spacious leg space when I flew some local flights with US airlines). Needless to say, I am glad that I choose JAL this time round. The 7 and half hour flight was pleasant, and I get to eat a lot of good Japanese food onboard.

The flight route brings me to a transit at Narita airport in Tokyo, before taking a domestic flight to Chitose in Hokkaido. Narita has also changed. I assumed that an extension has been made for domestic terminals to accommodate the enormous flow of passengers flying to and from Tokyo. Strange long corridors and minimalist design are what describes this new domestic terminals.

The flight continues - another one with JAL from Narita, Tokyo to New Chitose Airport located at Chitose town, a few train stops away from Sapporo. Another surprise is that even though I fly at around 6-7PM, there's no food being served at all on board. Hungry, I was just glad that I bring back the bread and butter from last flight to fill in my stomach until I arrive later at Chitose. Strangely enough, despite the fact that I am hungry, I somehow feel that the flight was really comfortable. Surreal beautiful sunset sky scenery, and the fresh, clean atmosphere of meal-less flight fly me smoothly to the destination.

Chitose, The Cold Suburb

Arriving at New Chitose airport at night, I only see the passengers from my flight in the baggage claim area. The airport was deserted, at least the arrivals area. Trying out to find a way to the hotel, I asked a gentle-looking old airport staff for direction to my hotel. The old man spoke broken English. It did not take long for me to try to speak Japanese to him, to which he replied in easy Japanese, still combined with his broken English. Thanks to the old man, I finally gain confidence to speak Japanese after all these years of studying the language, so I tried to do more. It did not take long to understand the direction, thanks to my understanding of Japanese, and finally I decided to take the train to the station near my hotel.

It was my first experience of going to Japan's subway and buying a train ticket at the machine by checking how much it costs to go to the correct station. After going through the sentry gates and descending further down to the train platform, a surprising blow of cold, chilly air invaded me. The subway tunnel is connected to the outsides, and cold wind blew through the tunnel almost constantly. Only a few people wait for the train in the dark, cold underground platform. I asked a station officer standing on the platform using Japanese again to double-confirm before boarding the train that comes shortly after.

This is how it looks like inside the train. I was just hoping that the doors will close soon, as it was getting really cold. After some 10 minutes wait, the doors finally closed, and  the train moves, from dark subway to emerge above the ground. Shortly after, I arrived at the Chitose station, all empty again, and I can start to really feel the cold. Thanks to the locality map at the station, I can find my hotel easily, but the short walk to the hotel sure was arduous. In addition to the blowing cold wind, the sky decided to add light drizzle. I can just rush through the cold to finally arrive at the hotel, all warm and fuzzy inside.

The Family Restaurant Experience

One thing that I have not mentioned is that I traveled with my parents, so that made us a group of 3. Hungry, I asked the hotel receptionist, what cheap restaurants around that he can recommend to us in this cold, deserted night. He recommended a family restaurant just a short walk away, and sure enough, I find the menu to be quite appetizing and not so expensive. I have been reading about family restaurants in Japan, about how they served wide range of food, especially western food and how they have become a late-night hangout places for various people, like students, or youngsters. Expectations met, the atmosphere was quite like that. Afraid of the portion being too big and the fact that it is late at night, we decided to order 2 items, one of which is a combo set with all you can eat salad and curry rice. It sure is enough to feed 3 people. What we did not expect was when we share the salad and the curry rice, the waiter came and reprimanded us, saying that the all you can eat stuffs can only be eaten by one person, not all of us. Soon after, seeing that we still loosely follow the rules, he decided to add one more salad and curry rice set to our bill, to which I just comply, since I cannot understand his Japanese. Well, it sure was an experience, that we cannot play cheapskate in a Japanese family restaurant. The bill came out for around 2500 yen for 3 people, which is not bad at all since we got to eat beef steak in one of the food items. I began to understand with such business models, that was why they enforced such rules.

Back to the hotel room, I see that what's coming out of the AC-looking machine is warm air, meaning it was a heater. Well, this is a first for me that when I am indoor, I need something to warm the room up, not the other way round. It works perfectly though, the room temperature was good. That's all for my day 1.