Took a night flight out from the little red dot island.
Snacks time folks! How can I miss out the yummylicious beer on board?
Two empty seats beside me. Peace!
The only thing about night flight is you get awoken up at 5.30am for breakie. Wait, it's 4.30am, my time. Simple breakie this time with porridge, pickles, eggs and hot tea.
I love sunrise, especially at this altitude.
Rivers are appearing.
Landed safe and sound with the morning sun beaming at me.
As I had to transit to a domestic flight which won't take off for another 4 hours, I decided to ditch the group and explore the city nearby. I approached the information counter and asked if I have enough time but the lady at the counter said no. I would need at least 5 hours. Well, not that I don't believe her, but with my own calculations, counting on the fact that I am quite well-versed in map reading and that I myself do this for a living, I decided to head towards Narita City anyway.
The train ride only took 10 minutes and I arrived at Narita Station. Where should I go next? I took note of the return train timing and zoomed off in the direction of a temple.
It's such a clear sky! The temperature was about 15 deg c.
Along the way, you see strange signs.
This is the little road with lots of shops along the sides which leads to the temple.
Many shopkeepers had just started their day.
After a short walk of 15 minutes, I finally reached Narita-san Temple.
There are little stalls outside the temple grounds with festive atmosphere!
Shop aunties having their morning tea and chit-chatting. No customers/tourists yet.
I had no map with me and yet I dared to explore the place. Haha! Well, just be adventurous I'd say! Tried another way to return to the train station and thank goodness I succeeded.
Bike storage, what an ingenious way!
Okay, back at the platform waiting for the train. Oh do remember, no running to board the train.
Before I hopped on the train, I passed by Macs. And what must I buy? Bacon Potato Pie! Oh it's so delicious, my my.
Almost did not make it in time for the domestic flight as I made some technical error. Anyway, the flight was pretty empty.
Bye bye Narita Airport.
I love this route particularly which took me past Tohoku. It was winter and see how gorgeous the snow covered mountains are.
Flying above Hokkaido now.
Got ferried in a small coach. The snow outside was simply lovely.
And it started to snow!
It was still snowing when I got to the hot spring town of Jozankei.
After a short walkabout in the small town, we dropped by for a dessert. This is not the famous Onsen Tamago (hot spring egg) but a sweet dessert. Everyone was famished and one of them saw this on a poster and ordered one 'egg' each.
Only when they opened the 'eggs' up and tasted them, did they found out the truth. These are simply beautifully crafted sweets. The 'yolk' tasted like mango pudding.
Took a stroll back to the ryokan where we were staying.
As the sun set, the snow fell again.
I had a cup of hot tea while enjoying the night scenery from my room.
Dinner was served. Snow crab! Beef! Sushi!
After dinner, everyone went to the mini grocery store and bought themselves drinks.
Me too!
Woke up to more snow, more falling snow.
Breakfast was buffet style so I could pick what I like to eat without wasting the whole tray.
Work begun and we started to inspect the rooms at the ryokan itself.
The emergency exit sign is really a tad too big.
The onsen in the ryokan actually has a schedule for the guests. As they have two areas of onsen, big and small, they switched the ladies and gents around. So we were warned, please do not walk into the wrong one! Open your eyes!
Before leaving the ryokan, we walked to anther ryokan nearby for inspection.
This ryokan is not so old actually but they made the whole place looks like Oshin-era.
You don't get many chances to take pictures when you are inside the onsen area so here you go!! Snap snap!
This is the outdoor hotspring. I love outdoors better.
This one is truly outdoors, no roof! Falling snow on your head while you enjoy the bath.
See the cage at the end of the room? This room is meant for guests who would like to bring their dogs.
The restaurant has an old school stove.
Alcohol all locked up!!
Nice dried corn
Some kinda hot stones. Nope, I haven't tried it before. I don't want to feel like meat.
Left Jozankei and headed into the City of Sapporo. After an hour's ride in the bus, I reached the small hotel. The room is quite nice.
View from my room, the JR Sapporo Station area with shopping malls. Can you see Daimaru?
It was lunch time and we walked to the JR Sapporo Station for a meal. This place is called Sapporo Ramen Republic. The whole place have many ramen shops for you to slurp your way through.
Settled into one of the shop and waited patiently for my ramen. On the table, there were baskets of eggs (white eggs somemore!). The tag said, Free eggs for your ramen. Wow. Nice.
This is my miso ramen, half portion. I knew I could not finish the whole portion so I halved it. In Japan, the wonderful thing is, you can (more or less) tailor your meal. More noodles (add a couple hundred yen), less noodles (take a couple hundred yen off), spicier etc...
Don't forget to collect your bag and coat after you are done!
Some simple sightseeing was done for the group. This is the clock tower.
Sapporo TV Tower.
Everyone was well bundled up. It was the middle of winter. It was cold.
-6 deg c. According to my thermometer.
This is the old Hokkaido Governement Building, lots of red bricks used.
After the business meeting, we stopped by a tiny ryokan (rare in the city) for inspection.
'How am I going to extract my bike?!'
Curry rice display. yummmm.
This is Susukino. Something like our Orchard Road.
Popped into an izakaya (Japanese bar) for dinner. Very interesting decor.
Let us all tuck in!
How should I end the night? hmmm.
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