And so it begins! The first day is kind of boring because there is only so much adventure you can get by hopping from plane to plane to get from A to B. Dave delivered me at SFO shortly before 7 am, and by 7:30 am I was comfortably installed in the boarding area, waiting for my 8:30 am boarding with Hawaiian Airlines (HA). I took the opportunity to take a Power Nap. Unfortunately I got a middle seat, so the leg from SFO to Honolulu was not as comfortable as I would have liked. Also, HA has joined the cutthroat practices and wanted to charge me $4 for the earbuds (but I thwarted them by turning on the captioning in the movie, ha, ha).
When we got to Honolulu (6 hours later) I was treated to outrageous prices for a sandwich that was billed as the Super Roast Beef sandwich, but ended being bread with a thin sheet of lettuce and a paper thin sheet of roast beef. $7, arghh!
We left Honolulu with a delay of one hour, but at least HA treated us to free earbuds, wine, and dinner (but I still got a middle seat). After 8 hours of flight we reached Tokyo, but by then I had missed my connection to Sapporo. JAL was on the ball, however, and had already booked me to a later flight. Still, I had my first encounter with Japan and its bureaucracy on less than ideal circumstances. By then was already 9 pm, and I didn't fancy having to go from Chitose Airport to Sapporo (50 km away; in Japan the newer airports are always a long way from the city they serve), so using Booking I got a local hotel, managed to take the train to the closest station (and then walk for an hour under the drizzle), and finally made it to a well-deserved bed and rest.
I need to get reacquainted with the amenities of Japanese hotels, which often include a sauna and a midnight snack, but all in due time.
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