Tokyo to Sapporo

So I have a ticket for a shinkansen to Hakodate, which is a southern town on the island of Hokkaido. I have 12 minutes there to transfer to a JR line train which will take me to Sapporo. All up I will be travelling for 7 3/4 hours. Bear in mind my Brisbane to Tokyo flight took 9 hours.

My shinkansen leaves from Tokyo station at 8:20 am. The station is a tad busy at that time of the morning and steering my megaluggage through the worker horde is challenging. All the more so as I need to go to track 21 and the clock is ticking. I eventually find the escalator to the right track with under 5 minutes to spare. I've run up a bit of a sweat and my right hand is bleeding for some unknown reason. It's a jungle out there!

On board the train I cool down and relax. It's a smooth ride through Northern Honshu, then underground to Hokkaido. I make the transfer OK with time to walk extra distance to use the escalator rather than hauling my luggage up the stairs. It's a bit after 4pm when the train pulls into Sapporo.

There's been some rain during the day but not at the moment. I decide to wheel my megaluggage 2km to the hotel, not the only one doing this! Later on I ring Aunty Joan via Skype to wish her a happy 90th birthday. I tell her I'm in Sapporo but it takes a while for the penny to drop that I'm not in Australia. She's had a big day so blame that.Read more