3. Transport - so transport from home to Chicago (drive), place to park car (got a package through drive and park and ride and fly and sleep or something like that - my parents do it all the time), then shuttle to airport. ANA to Narita (which is about an hour from downtown Tokyo) -- oh and by the way, the in-flight food looks like a lot of fun!
So then we're there -- in a Japanese airport -- midday on a weekend. There are a multitude of transport options to get to Tokyo. We will probably choose to go with the least complicated, yet most expensive, train option, which appears to be the Narita Express.
The touchiest transport is going to be getting from our hotel in Shinjuku BACK to Narita in order to fly to Sapporo fairly early in the morning during a weekday (rush hour at the busiest train station in the world anyone?). I'm just hoping someone gives us some tips.
From the airport in Hokkaido we are renting a car. I have it reserved but have not yet paid, so hoping the Seinfeld car rental scenario doesn't happen. We did get a hotel in Sapporo that includes parking, so hopefully it all works out.
We therefore can drive to Kokusai Ski Resort, where DMV plans to rent a snowboard, and I plan on sledding and taking the gondola up to the summit and having tea at the café.
After we drive back to the airport and return the car the next day, we'll actually be flying into a different Tokyo airport - Haneda. We then need to get back to our original hotel - again - hoping for help here.
After that, pretty comfortable with the rest of the transport issues. At the airport when we first arrive, it appears that we purchase a card that then let's us pass through train gates and deducts payment. We've watched a few videos on it and it looks like the machines are in English. So we'll do that once we get there.
BONUS More than you ever were curious about the two Tokyo airports:
Haneda is the older airport, built in the 30s. Before that, people landed planes on the beach at Tokyo Bay. The airport was taken over by the USA after WWII and returned to Japan in the 1950s. As the airport grew, noise from increasing jet traffic lead to the creation of Narita airport. Haneda is still the busier of the two, and slightly closer to Tokyo.
In 1966, a strange string of air accidents ended with the destruction of (British) BOAC Flight 911 which crashed into Mt. Fuji after a wind gust in excess of what the plane was designed to withstand took it down, leaving a 10 mile debris trail and killing all aboard. A 8mm video was found in the wreckage and helped determine what had happened. A group of people who had decided not to board the plane, and there for lived to see another day, included a group of film scouts for the James Bond movie "You only live twice", one of who's names was Cubby Broccoli.
Narita airport was built in the 60s and 70s amid turmoil. A strong resistance group including local residents, unions, and political groups objected to the building of a second airport and the eminent domain rules used to size land to build it. Through many years, building was slowed due to this, and a police presence persisted through the airports eventual opening. At points, both police and protesters were killed in violent incidents. At one point, two towers of 100-200 feet tall were built by protesters to impede the landing of planes. Eventually, judicial decisions intervened and allowed for the destruction of the towers without compensation.
In a more modern incident, Sir Paul McCartney was caught with over 200 grams (almost 1/2 a pound) of marijuana when trying to enter Japan in 1980, and was subsequently arrested and jailed for 10 days. “When the fellow pulled it out of the suitcase, he looked more embarrassed than me,” he said in 2004. “I think he just wanted to put it back in and forget the whole thing, you know, but there it was.” His explanation as to why he had so much pot "for personal use": “We were about to fly to
Japan and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get anything to smoke over
there, this stuff was too good to flush down
the toilet, so I thought I’d take it with me.”
(P.S. as of this writing, it is illegal to bring any stimulant medication into Japan, including some sold over the counter in the USA. Some notable mentions are:
・Viagra and other sexual enhancers.
・Adderall
・Dexedrine
・Prozac
・some inhalers and some allergy and sinus medications.
Specifically, products that contain stimulants (medicines that contain
Pseudoephedrine, such as Actifed, Sudafed, and Vicks inhalers), or
Codeine are prohibited if it contains more than allowed quantity of
stimulant raw materials.
And um yeah, still illegal to bring in marijuana.)
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