// Day 5 (04/05/09) Tokyo //

as i look at the date then and the date now, i can't believe it has been nearly 2 weeks!

exactly one week after i came back from Japan but 2 weeks from what must have been the most dramatic day of our trip.

we went to Japan, armed with an iternerary to follow, trains to catch (we did online reservation of seats beforehand) albeit with limited Japanese.

So far everything has gone quite well.

We didn't managed to go to Tokyo Bay as we were mesmerised by Disneyland.

But that's a mini hiccup as compared to what we were about to face that day.

Happily set off to Sanrio Puroland! Excited!!

We imagine it to be a scaled-down disneyland =)

With luggage in tow of course, to be dropped off at the luggage storage centre at Tokyo Stn as usual.

500 yen ($8) for a piece of luggage.

Japan is another Pay And Pay country, seriously.

We'll be seeing you again, chisun inn!

The designated women's only carriage, after 10 pm everyday.

Shinjuku, noted to be the busiest train station in Tokyo.

Changed from the shinkansen to local train here.

Carps! windsocks?

Bugs Bunny, my fav.

we were in luck! on the way sanrioland, we saw sonic, posing for pictures outside some sega games arcade.

so we pretended to be japanese, and politely asked the fellow japanese woman behind us in the queue if she could kindly help us take a photo.

And of course she obligated and said in a very japanese kind of tone , "Ichi (1), Ni (2), Cheez!"

Directions to Hello Kitty Town.

Here we are, at Sanrio Puroland!

Say Cheez with Mother Hello Kitty!!! WhEE!!

Welcome! Buy admission tickets to enter.

Took a pleasant boat ride.

See those once-familiar sanrio characters!

Our Joy-5 ticket (500 yen), which can only allow us to enter one attraction.

we were shocked when the staff took our tickets and threw it into the bin when we board our kitty boat ride.

we decided to purchase this instead of the all-attractions passport cuz we've a 5.57pm train to catch!

Another main attraction: Hello Kitty House!

Couldn't resist taking a photo in kitty's mirror.

In sync with the appearance of the kitty logo =D

Kid trying to climb onto the very kawaii kitty bed.

Leopard sofa! Hello kitty is super rich!

After getting some souvenirs, it was time to head back to Tokyo stn via Shinjuku stn.

However, in our haste, we got on a wrong train, which although was slated to leave for Shinjuku, stopped halfway through the journey.

Some announcement was made in Japanese, which we couldn't even catch a single word of what it was about.

Everybody got off the train, we did too.

Hastily, we approached the train conductor for directions to Shinjuku.

Turns out we had to go to the opposite platform to change train.

Time was running out, and blood was rushing in my ears.

What if we couldn't get in time to board the 5.57pm train?

What if we had to take a later train and stand all the way to Hokkaido cuz we did not reserve seats on that train?

What if?

By the time we finally arrive at Tokyo stn, it was already 6.15pm.

Too late.

We quickly collected our luggage and rushed to the ticket office to exchange our tickets.

Actually to get from Tokyo to Hokkaido, we need to board three trains, in a grand total of about 11 hours.

The route (as guided by a website) is as follows:

Tokyo ---> Hachinoche (around 3 hrs)

Hachinoche ---> Aomori ( around 1 hr)

Aomori ---> Sapporo (Hokkaido) (around 7 hrs)

With these, we were supposed to arrive at Sapporo at 5 plus the following morning.

Hence, as things had come to this, due to our carelessness, we asked if there were a later combination of such trains.

The officer told us that this is the only way out.

Tokyo ----> Hachinoche (8.04 pm - 11.00pm)

Hachinoche ---> Aomori (11.07pm - 12.03 am)

Aomori ---> Goryokaku (7.30 am - 9.20 am)

Goryokaku ---> Sapporo (9.34am - 12.59 pm)

As such we'll be able to reach Sapporo at around 1 noon.

However, we'll have to spend 7.5 hrs at aomori stn!

That's because our last train from aomori to sapporo is a limited express train, which is not frequently available.

And we had to miss that train!!

Afraid of spending the night at a 'ulu' train stn, we asked if there is another way if we pay some charges.

The magical word 'PAY' was enough to send the officer into another frenzy of checking available trains.

Yes, we can, he concluded, but not before pressing an astronomical sum in the calculator.

60 000 yen for two persons, with bunk beds to sleep in and it's a straight train to Sapporo from Tokyo.

Stunned. We were totally stunned.

Lynette used the calculator to convert into sg dollars and we found out that it was around $400 plus.

I don't want to part with that money! I related my first reaction to Lynette.

I'll rather not go to Sapporo.

Lynette then enquired about internal flights.

Another female officer said, "It's impossible to be cheaper than the trains", without even checking. Her words resonated in my ears, even till now.

Internal flights are frequently use by locals as it is much much much faster.

It just takes over an hr to get to Sapporo's Chitose airport from Tokyo's Haneda airport.

Realising that we were hogging the counter and there was nothing they could do to help us, we walked off dejectedly, after thanking them with as much politeness as we could muster.

It's our own fault.

Why were we so careless?

We should have noted the time and train.

Usually, one of us would remember the correctly and lead the way.

But on that particular day, both of our brains weren't working at all.

we were like blind mice.

harsh but true.

In these foreign land, who could help us to resolve our mistakes?

Not even the JR people.

Tears were already welling up my eyes.

We stood in a corner of the busy, crowded Tokyo stn and discussed.

Finally we concluded that we very very much want to get to Sapporo and perhaps could spend that 7.5 hrs at aomori stn.

We decided not to tell our parents about this in case they couldn't sleep because of us.

It would be too selfish.

We had to detour to the shinkansen ticket office to reserve our next morning's train seats cuz the JR office only allowed same-day reservations.

Then we bought these bentos to comfort ourselves.

On 3 hr train ride, I did my prayers and kept chanting, even though the train's movements was causing me to feel extremely sleepy.

I did not know what to expect and just hope the stn will not be too ulu, cuz aomori isn't even a terminal stn and lynette's thick japan guidebook did not even have any mention of it.

Upon reaching Hachinoche, within 7 minutes, we lug all our stuff off this train and got on the next one just in time.

Before even settling down, the train had started to move!

At this point, I was rather sleepy and slept for some time.

After abt an hr, as the train was pulling into aomori stn, I woke up, and quickly awakened lynette.

I looked through the windows and was delighted by the sight of.... HOTELS!

We were feeling glad.

Glad that just opposite the stn, there were a few hotels for us to spend the night in.

At least we don't have to spend the night at the cold and windy stn.
Truly, extremely relieved cuz our train passed by some really really ulu stns with not a single building in sight.

Aomori was not as ulu as thought!

Taxis were still abundant and cars were lining up the roads, despite the fact that it was already past midnight.

When we went into route inn hotel, the receptionist told us there was only one single room available, which we gladly accepted.

Turned out, the bed was like the semi double one that we had in New Osaka hotel.

The receptionist even brought in extra pillow, toothbrush/toothpaste, towel, cup and green tea for us .

Now that's superb service =)

We ended up spending 8500 yen ($136) to atone for our mistakes.