Japan, Hokkaido Day 1

Took the flight to hokkaido on 5th December, transiting at Incheon Airport. I think we are one of the rarer ones who take Korean Air to Japan, but I love Korean Air, and it is cheaper than JAL! There was a slight delay on our way. I think their service has actually went down since the last time I took it but still good.

Korean Air Flight Meal

Breakfast on plane, we chose seafood fried noodles. The other choices were omelette and porridge. Their noodles was good. Why don't they give supper though, I prefer the flight back to Singapore because they give dinner and supper and there's ice-cream!

Flight meal to Hokkaido

Didn't quite like the meal from Incheon to Chitose, cause is pork with potatoes or beef.

landing in hokkaido

I can see the snow!!! Quite exciting because this will be my first experience with real snow.

At the Chitose airport immigration, I am very impressed with their service. Their immigration officer is really nice and it made me feel very happy to be there. The person before me was Korean so I guess he thought I was Korean, so when I went over he said "annyeonghaseyo" then I smiled. Haha, but when he saw my passport he said "sorry, ni hao". So nice! They are also very efficient because despite the long queue, the queue moved very quickly.

After touching down in Hokkaido, activated our sim cards for data. I was damn stupid because I kept thinking why am I not connected, it was actually because I forgot to off my flight mode. Then bought our bus tickets for our Ryokan.

Things we do while waiting: Testing how cold is the weather.

The bus to the interchange was okay because they have space for luggage storage, but the bus from the interchange to the ryokan didn't have space for luggage so it was quite troublesome and made my big and heavy luggage a burden.

After settling down, we went to walk around the area to see what they have.

Hokkaido Mascot - Bear

Hell Boy Mascot?

It was snowing quite heavily outside.First we get hype over it and take photos, and then we froze.
After walking for about an hour, went back to the hotel to hide. Then we had some time, about one hour before dinner, so I went to the onsen. Previously when I was in Tokyo, I didn't go because too shy, I only went to the one in taiwan because swimsuits are allowed. Japan, you have to go birthday suit. Decided to go this time because I have paid alot of money to stay here, so I have to make my money worth. Eunice couldn't go, so only me, myself and I. I guess that made me less shy because nobody knows me and I know nobody.

They have I think 7 different onsens which are supposed to serve different purposes. Haha, but I think they all serve one purpose for me, to make me sleep better. I felt damn sleepy after I went for onsen, especially when I went again next day in the morning. They have an outdoor onsen too, quite interesting to soak in hot spring while it is snowing. However, the thought of walking out to the hot spring and walking back was quite scary, but I did it!

Was almost late for dinner at 6.30pm, so rushed back to the room to meet Eunice before going down to 5th floor for dinner.

Our dinner was Japanese fine dining, very atas and the service was so good that it stressed me.

Menu

It has been (I think) 10 years since I last ate sashimi. I don't really like raw food, but since I'm in the land of sashimi, I decided to try. It was okay, very soft and not fishy, but I dipped in loads of the soy sauce.

Melon Soda

Order any drink but melon soda. It actually tastes like medicine.

All ready to eat!

Steak

Very lazy to rotate the picture and reupload, why doesn't blogger let us rotate our pictures. It is supposed to be with applesauce? but I didn't taste any applesauce. It is not bad though because usually I don't really like to eat steak.

Fine dining means very small portions of everything. I thought I wouldn't be full because of the small portions, but in the end I was satisfied. Haha, I guess because there was rice also.

The food was a good experience but the service was even a better experience. One of them accidentally just dropped lightly one of my plates and apologised profusely and after the meal, when we were leaving she apologised again. I already forgot about it. Despite their limited English, they will try their best to provide the best service. Haha, but the service comes with a price tag.

After dinner, we went to explore the ryokan, there was a drum performance, and the girl was good. The performance and the strength, daebak!

Eunice trying out Onsen drink

They have an area where you can try out onsen drink too!

Our Yukatas

All prepared to sleep now!