Cycling in Japan 2016 - First Day Excitement

What a great trip so far. The flight out of Auckland was fine. It left at midnight and I was hoping to sleep, but I was a little keyed up. And hungry. I waited until dinner was served and then slept with the green neck pillow we've had for years.

Turns out I slept quite well because I was surprised to see New Zealand time was 7.30 a.m. when I woke up. I reckon I got 5 hours sleep in a reasonable chunk.

Hong Kong was amazing. I haven't been there since I was twenty one and things have changed considerably. A new airport. A new county in charge. I hadn't considered how much I wanted to see Hong Kong again and found myself wishing we had some time to explore.

This isn't Wellington Airport

My phone knew an event was on for me and said that I was checking into the Nest hotel in Sapporo that day. Given Iona booked it and didn't add me as a name had us pondering the tentacles of Google. Somehow it knew.

But a few hours was all we had. Got onto the four hour flight to Sapporo and settled back. Col and I were starving and ate most of her huge bag of nuts and seeds and fruit. I picked out the fruit and happily ate the bus and seeds leftover.

Landed in Sapporo and was overwhelmed by the heat. 28 C by the time we got there. We sat in the Japan rail office to activate our real passes. Then we found a seat on the train and wedged ourselves in with our luggage and watched the attractive rail scenery pass our window.

After visiting the tourist centre, we split up. Brave or foolish. You decide. Ha ha. Col and I set out with a map to find our hotel as Iona was worried they'd sell our room. Once outside I consulted the map and was stunned with the gorgeous evening and bustle of activity. It was around 5.30 pm by then.

Despite the map not bearing any resemblance to our surroundings, we set off boldly. But after a few blocks I was suspicious. Suspicious enough to look for a hotel we passed to see if it was on my map. No. Hmmm. More suspicion set in.

I casually flicked my glance on the map to the north of the train station (we were supposed to be out the south side) and found the hotel there. Oops. I told Col that we'd headed the wrong way. We cut back through the station, telling Iona on the way that she'd need to go out this way. After a few blocks (where happily the map corroborated my physical environment) we found the hotel.

Booked in and braved the smoking corridor to our room. Threw our gear in then waited for Iona in the lobby.

She found us! Only had to ask directions one or twice. Oosshh.

Rearranged the furniture in the room with the brash boldness of stupid tourists. My cot bed was out up on its end against the wall and we separated the two large single beds. Col and Iona shared one and I got a bed that was a decent size. And we got some space back in the room.

We went out for dinner and found a great place. No English but plenty of pictures on the menu. Ordered some stuff. It was yummy.

Back to the room and we all crashed. I was asleep in seconds. My pillow was a bit like sleeping on a cliff. But I was so tired it didn't matter. And we're wondering if they have rice in the pillow because that's what it feels like.

Off to find breakfast now. A day in Sapporo beckons.