Though I was spending pretty heavily the last few days in Japan, I woke up with too much money and not enough time. I would have been perfectly fine with barely a 100 yen coin because the airport bus cost 1100 yen and I had a 1000 yen deposit coming my way on checkout. However, because I had ended up not buying a JR pass, I was still a little flush with cash. Regarding time, my flight was scheduled at 1 pm, but upon further review, I realized that one needed to budget 90 minutes travel time to the airport on top of whatever is recommended for international travel.
With these factors in mind, I was able to run out in the morning to accomplish a major task–fresh seafood from a market. The Nijo Ichiba Market, which is now basically just a tourist trap, still has stalls selling crab and a handful of attached restaurants offering various donburi (meat on rice bowls) featuring salmon roe, uni (sea urchin), and various combinations of seafood. I spent way too much time indecisively walking from restaurant to restaurant comparing menus and prices and attempting to psychically suss out my best value before giving up and just picking one. It was a lot of money, but it was good to try.
On the way back, I swung by a supermarket to pick up a bottle of Japanese whisky as a gift (not necessarily the most premium stuff, but a medal winning recipe and appropriately boxed up). The idea to grab a bottle of whisky as a gift came about from the announcement in a WeChat group of a birthday party perfectly timed for the day I returned to Beijing. However, upon rescheduling of the birthday party, I still figured it might be nice to have something to give my advisor. He doesn’t really drink whisky, but that doesn’t matter.
Back in the hostel, I quickly packed up all my stuff and checked out. Looking at the bus schedule, I still had about half and hour before I needed to leave, so I took the time to charge up my phone. I nearly missed the bus. As I was waiting at the red light across the street from the bus stop, I saw the bus come to the intersection. It’s light turned green before mine. Fortunately, there were enough people also going to the airport to slow it down as the driver has to get off, open up the luggage containers, and do all that. Surprisingly, the bus swung by the train station (in the opposite direction) to pick up more passengers. I was starting to get a little anxious about timing as we finally pulled up to the international terminal, but everything went very smoothly. I was able to get rid of almost all my coins on bus fare, I checked my luggage through to Beijing, got groped in security, and had an hour to kill before boarding began. Having 2000 yen left, I looked at some shops and restaurants, but didn’t necessarily want to buy anything. I will note that the Chitase (Sapporo) Airport has decently priced selection of Japanese food in it food court. I plopped down at a charging station and worked until it was time to board.
Asiana Airlines fed us (bulgogi and rice) and I watched “Glass” on the 2.5 hour flight. I passed through Korean customs readily and it was a really weird feeling to not pick up my luggage. After getting into Wi-fi to message a friend and check the best route to Gangnam, I topped up my Korean metro card (actually not needed) and commuted the 1:45 downtown from Incheon Airport. Arriving at the rendezvous point a little early and a lot famished, I wandered over to a 7-Eleven to grab a bottle of grapefruit soju and a snack (a protein bar), then sat down on a step by the subway exit where some street performers were singing. It’s amazing how much I love Korea. It felt so good to be there, especially now that it was summer and everyone was out of their winter coats.
When my friend finished work, we went straight to barbecue, ordering three cuts of pork for an amazing if slightly pricey meal. I picked up the tab, but she treated the shaved ice afterwards. We said goodbye, and I hopped on the subway (catching an express train) to go all the way back to the airport, where I had booked a “capsule hotel” room for the night. I had to walk about twenty minutes from the airport, through the long-term parking lot, underneath a maglev train (closed, but runs between the airport and a water park), to a community of high-rises and airport hotels. My hotel, despite being called a “capsule,” was just a private room with shared toilet and bath. I cleaned up and pretty much went straight to bed.
It was stuffy in the room, and I kept waking up early, anxious about the flight. Finally, my alarm went off at 6:15. I dressed, used the restroom, and went to the lobby at 6:30. The hotel manager had offered to drive me to the airport in the morning and there was one other guest also waiting at the time. Funnily enough, it probably took just as long to drive–what with the highways and all–as it was to walk the direct route.
I was already checked in for my flight, but updated my boarding pass at a self-service terminal to figure out what my gate was. When I saw the line for security, I was glad I was early. It moved along fast enough, but there must be at least dozens of flights leaving at roughly the same time in the morning.
I needed coffee and possibly a breakfast, but headed over to my gate first, where I found a Dunkin Donut literally at my gate. I think I bought a donut there the last time I flew out of Incheon (going to Shanghai in 2016). I had a breakfast, then moved to a charging station to top up my phone. It’s hard to charge in Korea since I lost my Korean plug adapter.
Asiana Airlines almost didn’t want to let me on the airplane, and to be fair, I should have been better prepared with a printed copy of my onward flight and a screenshot of the 144-hour transit visa. I only screenshotted (in Chinese) the summary page of my next flights. Of course, as they were calling to check if it was okay to fly me, they were also concerned if I had a visa to Russia. No, I am going to Germany. After everyone else boarded the plane, they finally got the okay. I sat down, but five minutes later they grabbed me and asked if I had the ticket numbers of my onward flights. I was out of wifi range and hadn’t locally saved a copy, so I was escorted back onto the gangplank to get a wifi connection. I quickly got into my email and downloaded the pdf, but the ground crew member was suddenly nowhere to be seen. Not wanting to go all the way back in to the terminal, where they could just leave without me, I simply returned to my seat. After a few minutes, we pulled away from the gate, and I guess that was that.
We were served the same meal on the much shorter flight to Beijing (except with pudding instead of yogurt). As soon as I stepped off the plane, I could feel the oppressive air attacking my throat and lungs. I followed the long walk to immigration and stopped at the visa services desk just before it and grabbed a temporary visit card. By the time I finished filling it out, there was no one in line, so I went straight up for processing. It went very smoothly and matter-of-fact. All that was important was seeing the onward flight and having a contact address/phone number. With a fancy little sticker in my passport, I proceeded to pass through immigration and customs as normal.
Thus, I returned to China, and my travel blogging will take a short hiatus until Phase II: European Vacation kicks off.
| Seafood Donburi | 2700 JPY |
| Mt Fuji Whisky | 2106 JPY |
| Airport Bus | 1100 JPY |
| Flight(s) | 2198 RMB |
| Hotel | 222 RMB |
| Tmoney Recharge | 10,000 KRW |
| BBQ | 52,000 KRW |
| Snack & Soju | 3,200 KRW |
| 2 donuts & coffee | 6,800 KRW |
| Total: | 3254.25 RMB (USD 471.44) |
Running Total: 43626.5 RMB (USD 6320.2)
Daily Average: 349 RMB (USD 50.56)
Whew, that air ticket really killed the daily average, but overall its pretty impressive to have traveled so much in such expensive countries for basically 50 bucks a day including everything.