Day 1: 14.7 (Friday) Hong Kong --> Tokyo --> Sapporo
I didn't sleep until early morning so as to do my last minute luggage packing (I'm the last-minute type of person). It seemed that my luggage was already laden with clothes, toiletries and silly stuff (like a torch which I hadn't even touched it during my trip) before I even set my foot in Japan. Anyway, I had been waiting for this day for a long time and my adrenaline made me a bit tense (or the other way round)--I always thought I had left something important behind. In fact, I had a mixed feeling--a bit worried (coz it's my first time travelling alone and I didn't have a travel plan yet), a bit excited (I was looking forward to some exciting experience) and a bit depressed (I always felt that way... personality problem).It's very sunny when I woke up which was completely out of my expectation since the weather forecast said it would be an overcast day and heavy rain was coming. So as a sunscreen freak, I felt uncomfortable with just a flimsy coat of sunscreen on my face and my hands and neck vigorously exposed to the intense sunlight.
So far, Hong Kong Internatinal Airport has been my favourite airport, but there is one thing that I don't like--that's the toilet. The airport toilets are all auto-flushed (I couldn't find any manual flush buttons). And the stupid part is, the toilets will not flush itself until you have entirely left the cubicle for 3-4 seconds. So when I walked out from the cubicle after I had used the toilet at the airport, a lady (I guess she was Japanese) wanted to walk in and intended to flush the toilet for me. I stopped her immediately and told her in English: "I think you gotta wait for a while as the toilet will not flush after a few seconds. You know, it's an auto-flushing thing."
She didn't seem to get me and gave me a confused look. And as we were standing near the cubicle, the stupid sensor thought there were still people in there and didn't do the flushing. She then turned to another toilet. Ohno... she must have thought I was an uncivilised HK girl who didn't flush the toilet after use and held others back from using it...
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The ANA flight was OK. I had reserved the window seat next to the emergancy exit, so I could enjoy a luxurious amount of leg space. I could even stretch my legs ^O^
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The efficiency of the immigration officers in Japan was really, really low. I had been waiting in the line for almost an hour before I could finally get the immigration stamp on my passport.
After a 5-hour flight to Tokyo, the first thing I did was to buy a bottle of green tea and a novel--I had just found out that I couldn't survive the flight or train trip with just travel books.
My favourite ^^: Green tea--rich flavour
That is a series of Mt. Fuji products at the airport.
There were not many choices of English novels at the airport book store. They only stock top bestsellers (most of the readable which I had already read).
They would wrap novels like this:
That is the autobiography of Helen Keller. A very touching book indeed. It gave me a flow of warm feeling during the flight trip and helped me through the waiting hours at the airport.
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The domestic flight to Sapporo was delayed for an hour, so by the time I arrived at the hotel, it was 9:30 pm already and I was starving! I took the metro to Susukino (薄野) and looked for something nice to eat.
Susukino was a Mongkok-like district where streets were bazzing with trendy looking, dyed-haired people and lined with restaurants and high buildings. I must have been too tired as a walk at Susukino made me feel sick.
I headed to the ramen street and got in a small shop. That was the Sapporo-style seafood ramen I ordered. That piece of butter was wonderful!
I was thrilled after the first spoon of soup--it had a really rich seafood flavour. The scallops were really fresh and the piece of pork was so tender that it melted the instant it rested on my tongue. That was the best ramen I had in my trip! And that's why it cost more than HK$100...
That is the new 24-hour shopping mall in Susukino (actually, only rsetaurants operate 24 hours a day). The Japanese are really obsessed with ferris wheels. There must at least be one in major cities.
I headed back to the hotel after a short walk in Susukino and planned my trip for the next day.
posted by 燒米餅 @ 2:57 pm
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