For every trip, there’s always a travel day, and that is the day you spend getting from point A to point B. Usually travel days are the least intriguing with not much to do accompanied by mediocre food.
Not in Japan! I love travel days in Japan.
For one thing, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise.
Secondly, our flight back to Tokyo was still scheduled on-time, while the Sapporo route was once again cancelled. Which made me think, how many times that flight does get to take off…
Kushiro Airport gift shop carries a small collection of Rokkatei sweets. Just not the specific ones I was looking for 😦
For breakfast, I got pork bun and a bottle of birch tree essence water which is said to boost my energy level.
My friends, being the gourmet that they always are, got Hakodate wine and 2011 No. 1 cheese of All Japan. It was good! In fact, all cheeses from Hokkaido are really good!
The flight itself was beautiful. Thanks to my friends who let me have the window seat!
Here’s us taking off from the snowy land of Hokkaido…
Getting above clouds and flying above Tsugaru Strait…
Notice the little bear on the tip of the wing. That’s Bear Do, the cute mascot of Air Do (formerly known as Hokkaido International Airlines).
Approaching the main island of Honshu…
Flying across the Japanese Alps…
Approaching Tokyo…
and caught a glimpse of Mt. Fuji during descent…
To get to Yudanaka, we had to take the Hokuriku Shinkansen train from Tokyo to Nagano, then change to either limited express (no transfer needed) or local train (with transfer in Shinshu-Nakano).
At Tokyo Station, we observed the cleaning ritual of the Shinkansen crew. Saw them turning seats and leaving the train in an uniform way.
It is said that the crew has only seven minutes to clean the trains. What efficiency and professionalism! And here is how they did it.
The sun went down as we were approaching Yudanaka.
Although we were happy to be back to mainland Japan. We’ve already missing Hokkaido. There’re so much we haven’t seen in the Northern Island of Japan. I kept this “Hokkaido Roman Map” printed on a plastic bag as a memorabilia and as a reminder that we will be back!
Travel-Gourmand.com 