The Constant (Failed) Dieter: Travel Log: A Winter in Japan (Too Much Snows!) (Day 1)

Monday, 17 February 2014

Travel Log: A Winter in Japan (Too Much Snows!) (Day 1)

Destination: Japan

Duration: 6 Days 5 Nights (Feb 08~Feb 14, 2014)

Day 1: Worst Snow in 45 years!

It was supposed to be a simple trip to Japan for a week but bad news struck before we even boarded the flight from Singapore to Narita. News of snow storm in Japan sprouted like wildfire but SQ said the flight was still on time. Everything seemed to go well right? Managed to grab the SGD20 voucher in Changi, did a bit shopping, watched Lone Ranger before finally boarding the flight.

In-flight Meal PEN-SG via Silkair

Chicken Puff

Typical Chicken Puff though

Sammy was on the flight too!

Butterfly Garden in Changi Airport

Didn't see any Butterfly though

Pisa in Changi Airport

Ciao!

1^st thing my eyes spotted was the inflight entertainment magazine at the back of the seat with Thor: the Dark World on cover. DARN! How could I sleep knowing that I could watch the movie in a loop for Tom Hiddleston? *swoon* We were served with Smoked Tuna Panini as supper and it was superb.

Thor the Dark World!!!

Sammy was hiding...

SQ Beverage Menu

Breakfast Menu

LOKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Smoked Tuna Panini & Singapore Sling!

Breakfast was Japanese rice with grilled salted mackerel, Japanese omelet & seasoned vegetable. It was excellent and I particularly loved the rice with some flavor on it. The only complaint was there were 3 big bones from the mackerel – hmm.. I thought inflight meal was supposed to be boneless?

Breakfast Set! Huge!

Amazingly we reached Narita on time at 6.50am and went through immigration without a long line. We thought we were in luck! We quickly went to the train ticket booth and that was when all hell broke loose! Apparently there were NO TRAIN, NO BUS & NO TAXI due to the worst storm in Tokyo in 43 years!!!! What were the odds?!!! *facepalm*

Was happy to see snow!

Lots of Snow!

Until we saw THIS!!!

The Aftermath... =(

We befriended a Chinese girl who had been living in Japan for more than 10 years and got to know that she was stuck in the airport since last night! Even if someone wanted to fetch you – they would take a long time since more highways were closed due to the snow.

Highway CLOSED!!!

Even Sammy felt sad...

All Trapped!

Basically we spent our Sunday from 7am to 3pm stuck in the airport getting to know the girl Aki is a singer & dancer in Japan Theater and she was a class mate of the famous Zhang Ziyi! Aki’s husband was trying to come and fetch her but was stuck on traffic too. She even offered to fetch us to Kawasaki if her husband managed to come through before the train resumed operation. What a nice lady! Pretty too! Here is her facebook - Yumeko Aki. =)

Vending Machine at Airport

Some Hot Drink!

1st Drink in Japan! Not what i expected...

Hot Banana Milk

Long queue for all restaurants in Airport

Look nice right? But SOLD OUT!!!

1st Meal in Japan!!!

I guess it's a Weight Lost Day?

The train finally started to operate at around 3pm and there was this huge line of people. The bad news was it was a local train so no Express trains for us. We finally got into the train and were trapped like sardine! The worst thing was people from other station kept pushing in even though the train was full. Since the railroad wasn’t fully operating yet, the train kept stopping for long time at various locations (basically middle of nowhere) to give ways to other train. We were trapped for 3 hours+ on the sardined train STANDING! I thought I’d lost my legs then!

Queuing for the Train...

Finally got a ticket...

Look at the Snow!

Railroad underneath the Snow...

All Trapped in a Sardine Train!

Literally no eyes see...

When the train finally reached Chiba (Yes! It took us 3 hours+ from Narita to Chiba!!!), Aki decided that enough is enough and dragged us out from the nightmare train to catch another metro line. Thank God those metro lines were fast and no delay! After a few transfers with luggage dragging up & down the stairs, Aki managed to find us a train headed to Kawasaki! Thankfully we met her else we would’ve trapped in the darn train till midnight!

We finally reached Kawasaki at around 8pm (after 4 hours++ of trains & 8 hours waiting in airport), we were totally starved so we simply went to a nearest restaurant at LeFront after checked into Kawasaki Nikko hotel. It was ramen but I didn’t really like the taste and noodle texture. The noodle kind of tasted like our local yellow noodle in Penang. The gyoza tasted very common as well.