The sun is shining brightly in the village and by 9am we are on the coach and on our way to Sapporo airport. It's a 2.5 hour journey with snowy vistas all the way. I snooze a little, reflect on some great skiing, lament my ailments and anticipate the big city of Tokyo.
Check in is a bit laborious with lanes here for this and there for that. Everyone seems to be doing everything very slowly and with typical Japanese measured precision. Except Brett who is racing off and - wham - wheels his suitcase right into the heavily bandaged foot of a woman sitting on a trolley, thinking she is safely out of harm's way!
Safely through the departure gates we are informed our flight is delayed by 40 minutes due to late arrival of our aircraft. A few flights are delayed or disrupted due to weather mayhem. There is a triple blizzard happening outside and the de-icing machines are hard at work. We sit and wait and cough and splutter. I suggest we should perhaps be wearing facemasks ... most people here wear them to stop catching other people's bugs, but perhaps some pro-action could be good so we don't give ours to others!!! His cough can surely be heard far away in Niseko where lucky happy people are swooping down lovely slopes.
The wait continues, the delay lengthens. We eventually take off a couple of hours late. No matter, the wait has been peaceful and without drama. We were kept fully informed the whole way through and no one got cross or fed up. That Tortoise sure could have come in handy during the wait though! We nibbled on nuts, chocolate and mandarins instead, the last of our Niseko snacks.
It's a 777-300 plane and pretty full. The flight is streamlined and without incident and we land at Tokyo's Haneda airport. The Limo airport bus (cost $14) takes us to Shinjuku via the impressive lattice of motorways. It is bang on rush hour yet we are moving fast. There is a heavy patch of traffic in one part but no inkling of gridlock, no sign of slow traffic going nowhere, no frustrated drivers. The city is alive with lights and once at Shinjuku station, in less than an hour, we take a short taxi ride to our Hotel Gracery. Cost $8. This is the Godzilla hotel - known for its massive Godzilla on the roof. Smack bang in the middle of Shinjuku.
We settle into our room which is compact and very cleverly designed. The bathroom is split up into three parts and it makes for an innovative space-saving and quite ingenious way to maximise space.
We wander into the surrounding streets, hungry and weary. We happen upon a small bar with a Jap-Italian flavour, The Olive, and head inside. It is chilly outside. Inside it is full and we take the last spare table. People in the group across from us are smoking - it's been a Long time since I sat alongside smokers in a restaurant - here such heathen behaviour is still allowed! God only knows why, it's horrific. Everyone is giggling and having fun.
I order a cheese fondue and Brett a couscous - bringing Swiss and Moroccan tones to the table. The fondue is very good. And the red wine not bad either. There is so much giggling around us, it's quite infectious.
We are back for an early night to try to rid ourselves of these dreaded lurgies once and for all. The bed is very firm. The body is tired. Sleep comes very easy.
Tomorrow ... big city time ...
OBSERVATION OF THE DAY: Everything here is done with such humility and gentleness. Not to mention efficiency. The soft gestures of the cabin crew's hands, the sweet smile of the check-in lady, the eager-to-please nodding of the ticket collector, the deft white-gloved hands of the bus driver, the calm service from the taxi driver, the humble bows of the hotel concierge - everything they do here, they do to please. Japanese style and service is highly uplifting in the most subtle and beautiful way. Things get done to perfection, no drama required.
No comments:
Post a Comment