I just realized how depressed I got writing about our recent Narita experience. Unfortunately, it continued.
We got up early on Monday, the 10th, to brave our way back to the airport for our flight to Sapporo. I remembered thinking, we are seasoned travelers and have learned our lessons, so we now possessed a return train ticket to the airport. No more long lines for us.
We got to Shibuya station extra early, just in case. Rather than stand down by the train platform and freeze to death, we opted to go to the top of the escalator were there was heat. There were constant announcements, but they were all in Japanese. At some point it seemed like a lot of people from the train platform were headed back up towards us. Fortunately a helpful Japanese man asked if we were going to Narita airport. We said yes. He said someone had fallen on the track at another station and the train was canceled.
Oh, my God, I thought, here we go again. We joined the rushing throngs heading back towards the station. Finally found a train guy (speaking no English) who told us to take the subway to a certain station and then we could connect with a semi-express subway to the airport. (Unbelievably, this train also announced it was shutting down because of a person on the track, but soon reopened).
Unfortunately you had to buy a ticket to do this, and the lines for the ticket machines were now backed up through the station. Since we had a 12:30 pm flight, we were now worried about getting to the airport on time. During these crises, we’ve learned it’s all about alliances, those people you hook up with to help you through the morass. We initially found two Finish guys who seemed to know the subway system well. We progressed through the hour-long line with them and then I overhead another guy say something about a machine hidden around the corner where you could get tickets. A tall Japanese guy seemed to overhear the same conversation and we hooked up with him heading in the direction of the new machine. Sure enough, covered in Japanese writing was a machine with no line. By sheer luck, and the help of our new tall Japanese BFF, it turned out this was a machine for people who already had tickets, but ones that needed to be upgraded. That was us. We quickly got new tickets and beat feet (with our tall friend) down to the subway station. Soon we were on the semi-express subway (not the express train we had ridden in). If we would have stayed in the original line we would have once again missed our prepaid flight to Sapporo.
We also had the issue that once you arrive at Sapporo you still have a two-hour bus ride to the ski area, and these buses all run on reservations. Most buses where already full and others were canceling because of not enough people. Somehow our daughter pulled some strings and found us a bus that would leave about an hour after our arrival at the airport. Thank you Christa. (I’m amazed she hadn’t totally given up on us by that point.)
Once at Terminal 1 we got our two big ski bags out of storage and went over to Peach Airlines (don’t ask) to board 12:30 pm flight, only to be told it was delayed until 3:30 pm. By now this seemed perfectly normal to us (they had already canceled their other two flights of the day) so we headed upstairs to find food and someplace comfortable to camp. I had to unplug a large sign advertising a money exchange to plug in my iPhone, but at that point I simply didn’t care.
Miraculously we got on the Peach flight, which was a very nice Airbus A320, but one unfortunately set up for discount air travel in Japan. This means the normal seat pitch for Americans was reduced to fit the shorter Japanese, and then reduced again since it was a discount carrier. Oh well, we were on an airplane. The flight went well and after two hours we landed in the massive Sapporo airport. I have to say it was one of the nicest airports I had ever visited. It had a huge indoor mall with tons of great restaurants, shops, kiosks, etc. We were starving and quickly made our way to the food court only to see the shutters coming down on most of the kiosks. Only two remained open, one selling octopus balls (I kid you not) and another selling hamburgers. Hamburgers it was.
Found the huge Greyhound-type bus and three of us boarded. The roads were covered with snow but the ride was uneventful. The bus arrived at a huge parking lot at the ski area and we got off. It was absolutely freezing and we weren’t dressed for the Arctic weather. Our understanding was the bus would take us directly to our lodge, but the bus driver spoke no English. After some frantic knocking on doors we found someone who spoke a little English and got the driver pointed the right way. Hauling two huge hockey bags with our six other bags over a ½ mile in the snow at 11:00 pm at night in 18-degree weather was not my idea of fun. Once at the hotel Christa came down and helped us with our bags and we quietly made it into the very nice condo and collapsed on our beds.
Our ordeal was over.
We got up early on Monday, the 10th, to brave our way back to the airport for our flight to Sapporo. I remembered thinking, we are seasoned travelers and have learned our lessons, so we now possessed a return train ticket to the airport. No more long lines for us.
We got to Shibuya station extra early, just in case. Rather than stand down by the train platform and freeze to death, we opted to go to the top of the escalator were there was heat. There were constant announcements, but they were all in Japanese. At some point it seemed like a lot of people from the train platform were headed back up towards us. Fortunately a helpful Japanese man asked if we were going to Narita airport. We said yes. He said someone had fallen on the track at another station and the train was canceled.
Oh, my God, I thought, here we go again. We joined the rushing throngs heading back towards the station. Finally found a train guy (speaking no English) who told us to take the subway to a certain station and then we could connect with a semi-express subway to the airport. (Unbelievably, this train also announced it was shutting down because of a person on the track, but soon reopened).
Unfortunately you had to buy a ticket to do this, and the lines for the ticket machines were now backed up through the station. Since we had a 12:30 pm flight, we were now worried about getting to the airport on time. During these crises, we’ve learned it’s all about alliances, those people you hook up with to help you through the morass. We initially found two Finish guys who seemed to know the subway system well. We progressed through the hour-long line with them and then I overhead another guy say something about a machine hidden around the corner where you could get tickets. A tall Japanese guy seemed to overhear the same conversation and we hooked up with him heading in the direction of the new machine. Sure enough, covered in Japanese writing was a machine with no line. By sheer luck, and the help of our new tall Japanese BFF, it turned out this was a machine for people who already had tickets, but ones that needed to be upgraded. That was us. We quickly got new tickets and beat feet (with our tall friend) down to the subway station. Soon we were on the semi-express subway (not the express train we had ridden in). If we would have stayed in the original line we would have once again missed our prepaid flight to Sapporo.
We also had the issue that once you arrive at Sapporo you still have a two-hour bus ride to the ski area, and these buses all run on reservations. Most buses where already full and others were canceling because of not enough people. Somehow our daughter pulled some strings and found us a bus that would leave about an hour after our arrival at the airport. Thank you Christa. (I’m amazed she hadn’t totally given up on us by that point.)
Once at Terminal 1 we got our two big ski bags out of storage and went over to Peach Airlines (don’t ask) to board 12:30 pm flight, only to be told it was delayed until 3:30 pm. By now this seemed perfectly normal to us (they had already canceled their other two flights of the day) so we headed upstairs to find food and someplace comfortable to camp. I had to unplug a large sign advertising a money exchange to plug in my iPhone, but at that point I simply didn’t care.
Miraculously we got on the Peach flight, which was a very nice Airbus A320, but one unfortunately set up for discount air travel in Japan. This means the normal seat pitch for Americans was reduced to fit the shorter Japanese, and then reduced again since it was a discount carrier. Oh well, we were on an airplane. The flight went well and after two hours we landed in the massive Sapporo airport. I have to say it was one of the nicest airports I had ever visited. It had a huge indoor mall with tons of great restaurants, shops, kiosks, etc. We were starving and quickly made our way to the food court only to see the shutters coming down on most of the kiosks. Only two remained open, one selling octopus balls (I kid you not) and another selling hamburgers. Hamburgers it was.
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| This photo doesn't do the airport justice. It has huge area with great restaurants, shops, kiosks, and other businesses. It's like three Bellevue malls put together and just as nice. |
Found the huge Greyhound-type bus and three of us boarded. The roads were covered with snow but the ride was uneventful. The bus arrived at a huge parking lot at the ski area and we got off. It was absolutely freezing and we weren’t dressed for the Arctic weather. Our understanding was the bus would take us directly to our lodge, but the bus driver spoke no English. After some frantic knocking on doors we found someone who spoke a little English and got the driver pointed the right way. Hauling two huge hockey bags with our six other bags over a ½ mile in the snow at 11:00 pm at night in 18-degree weather was not my idea of fun. Once at the hotel Christa came down and helped us with our bags and we quietly made it into the very nice condo and collapsed on our beds.
Our ordeal was over.
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