Day 6 - Sapporo (Hokkaido)

5th February, 2003 - Departing Tokyo late in the afternoon, we arrived in Sapporo's New Chitose Airport around 8-9 pm. We decided to take the train from the airport to Sapporo - takes about 40+mins as Chitose Airport is in the MIDDLE OF NO-WHERE. In fact if you were thinking of plonking an airport to support Sapporo - Chitose is about the best place NOT to put an airport. However - it does give you a chance to enjoy the scenery... if you were arriving in the day time.

My memory of arriving was this. Cold. It was about -15 degC when we arrived in Sapporo. That's cold even by Sapporo standards. After arriving in Sapporo Station, we changed trains - but not before catching up on some important business. Yes - back in those days I was a smoker... and Japan was smoker's paradise. Nowadays - things have changed a lot. And I quit smoking before the birth of my son (and a good thing too).

The other strong memory was arriving at the local station, and climbing up the stairs to be greeted by T-chan's mother (okaasan) and father (otousan). Yes - i was going to meet the family for the first time. That was a weird feeling.... but made much nicer by the fact that they are really great people, and I felt at ease with them instantly!