2/19/2013: This day was supposed to be a laid back day with a quick trip to Sapporo from Tokyo and not much else planned. I had a 11am flight from Tokyo to Sapporo. Narita Airport is located very inconveniently outside of Tokyo, so they recommend planning on 75 minutes of travel time to get there. I decided the night before that I should leave at 8am to be there 9:30ish for my flight. As I left, I realized I was running a bit low on cash, so I went to the nearby 7-11 to hit the ATM. It didn't like my card. I went to another ATM, and it didn't like my card. I went back to the hostel, grabbed my stuff, and headed to the train station. I'm starting to figure out how to get around, but I still get thrown off-track pretty easily. I took hopped on the train at Kuramae, got off at Uedo-somethingsomething, and must have taken a different exit out of the station, because I ended up wandering around what appeared to be the red light district. I finally found my way over to the other station, got to the platform, and when the train arrived, it was packed full of people. Every car was jam packed, no room for me and especially no room for my big pack. I waited for the next train, but it was just as full. The third one had space for half a person, so I crammed in and was glad I was taller than mostly everyone else. This was just for the train to Tokyo station, where I had to catch another train to the airport. At this point I'm nervous about making my flight, and nervous about running out of cash. I made it onto the next train with no problems, bought a cheap tasty snack with rice and seaweed with a little bit of fish and hopped on the train. I made it to my gate with no problems. The flight was a little late, so we got into Sapporo around 1:30pm. At this point I'm still thinking I need to ration my cash, but I'm starving, so I stopped at "Mos Burger," a Japanese burger joint for a cheap lunch. It was pretty bad. While there, though, I looked in my Japan travel book and saw that not all ATMs accept foreign cards. Some convenience stores do, and all post offices have ATMs that accept foreign cards, so that was a relief. I just had to find a post office.
I took the train into Sapporo from the airport, another 40 minute ride. I got into Sapporo around 3 or 3:30 maybe. It was incredibly snowy. Snowbanks are piled high on the streets, taller than cars in some places. The sidewalks are mostly shoveled, although I came to a point where the shoveling had stopped and there was about a 2 foot step from cement up onto packed ice. I knew the ski areas south of Sapporo get slammed, but I didn't realize this major city gets dumped on also. From the train station in downtown Sapporo, it was supposed to be an easy walk to my hotel, the New Otani Hotel. I had taken a screenshot of Google maps showing the walking route from the station, but I somehow got lost and wandered around for about another hour. I asked some girls for help, because most of my map was in Japanese, so I couldn't read street signs or anything. They didn't help much. I asked another guy for help, and he didn't know much either. Turns out I'd been looking for a much crappier looking hotel and I think I'd walked right past the New Otani a couple times. I booked it using hotels.com points, so I was pretty pumped. I checked in, got in my room, made some tea and did a little work. I realized I should try to find a post office before it closes, so I went back downstairs and tried to talk to the people at the front desk. They had very limited English, but way more advanced than my Japanese. They determined that the post office was a few blocks away, and that it closed at 6. At that point we both looked at the clock and realized it was 5:50, then I looked back at the lady at the front desk and was going to say that I was going to run up to my room on the 10th floor to get a jacket real quick (it was about 20 degrees F and snowing), but she had a weird look on her face and said something to the other guy at the desk. He ran into the closet and pulled out his jacket and offered it to me so I could make it to the post office in time. I thanked him a lot and put it on as I ran out of the hotel. I found the post office with plenty of time and successfully withdrew some money. I thought it would be funny to buy the two people at the front desk some candy as a "thank you" for helping me, so I stopped at a convenience store and got them some "Crunky" candy. I have no idea what it is, I just loved the name. They were confused when I gave it to them, hopefully it was actually candy and not like tobacco or something. I just thought it would be good to end the story with "then I bought them some Crunky."
I got some work done, then wandered back towards the train station to get some dinner at a Japanese curry restaurant. The guy asked what spice level I wanted (0=not spicy, 1=spicy, 2=very spicy) so I asked for a 1. It wasn't spicy at all, I should have gone for 2 at least. The meal had the kind of numbing spice that I've had in a Chinese dish before. It had a chicken leg, a hard-boiled egg, some veggies, and taro root, and came with rice on the side. It was very tasty. I went back to the hotel and got directions to the Sapporo Factory and walked there around 9pm. It wasn't really the factory, and I'm not sure I even went to a Sapporo-related place. It was more like a Japanese attempt at a German beer hall. They had a bunch of different types of Sapporo, though, so I drank a stout and took off as they were closing. I hustled back in the cold and prepared for my ski day.
In China, Amy and I were very impressed by Chinese women and their agility in high heels. I am equally impressed by Japanese women. I saw one girl crank through some packed snow and ice with huge heels on. Another woman ran past me in heels over the snow.
Oooh and the girl at the hostel in Tokyo calls me Daniel-san and isn't joking. It's awesome.
I've learned some more Japanese:
"sorry" = "gomennasai"
I can count to 999
"beer" = "birru"
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