This year James and I went all out on a big adventure and travelled to Japan for the festive season (and Seoul too, but you’ll hear more about that later). It exceeded all expectations and I most certainly want to go back. As soon as possible! There was snow and ice, winds that shut down the entire ski resort, onsens, all you can eat BBQ’s, lots of J-Pop and the most technologically advanced toilets I’ve ever encountered!
It was amazing!
James and I set off for Sapporo airport in Japan via Wellington, Auckland and then Seoul Incheon Airports. Flying at a ridiculous hour meant a grumpy wake up call, but we were soon sat on the first plane of the trip to travel the short leg from Wellington to Auckland. We didn’t get very far very quickly though as the plane had computer issues and wasn’t allowed to take off until it had them fixed. We sat on the plane for over an hour before we were up in the air. Air New Zealand were very good about it all, so by the time we got to Auckland I felt sort of zen-like.
Those of you that know Auckland airport will know how stressful it can be transferring from a Domestic flight to an International flight there; the international and domestic terminals are a short walk from each other so it’s often a little stressful to transfer there.
Anyway, we ran to collect our luggage, ran through security and ran to the gate…which was seconds away from closing. Only to sit THERE for an hour!
This was our first Korean Air flight. It would then connect to another Korean Air flight in Seoul. I wasn’t too stressed about getting in late, as I knew we would be provided with onward travel should we miss the connection. What I didn’t realise, however, was just how stress free the whole process would be.
We ended up landing in Seoul Incheon Airport with minutes to spare to meet our connection, which we obviously missed. But there was a lady stood waiting for us in the terminal to explain what would happen now that we had missed it, and it couldn’t have been easier…besides there is no-one i’d rather be stuck in Korea with!
Because there were no more flights that evening, we had to be put on a flight the next morning. This meant they provided us with accommodation for the night. The lady gave us our new tickets, printed out and ready for us, as well as instructions on how to locate a service desk where we would get guidance on how to get to the hotel. She explained that our checked in luggage would be dealt with and we need only worry about ourselves and our hand luggage. Off we went with our instructions and new tickets.
The hotel was amazing! A Grand Hyatt. It had a toilet that pretty much talked to you…so of course we spent ages testing all the functions. We also made use of the amazing (free) buffet dinner and promptly fell asleep in our giant bed. In the morning we made use of the breakfast buffet before being whisked away to the airport. So easy!
We were in for some more bad news though, the flight was delayed for hours while fog lifted! Just our luck. Again, however, Korean Air did everything that they could to help us out and it didn’t feel very stressful at all.
We did eventually make it to Sapporo Airport!
We were tired and we were hungry…and we had missed yet another connection on towards the ski fields. However, the people at the airport were extremely helpful and put on the next bus. Pretty soon we were in Niseko and at our first ski resort accommodation, The Lodge Annapuri. So despite a very long journey to get to Niseko, it was all a positive experience.
The bus from the airport to Niseko was in the dark, so I couldn’t really see very much out of the window, but I could see vending machines! Vending machines everywhere! They were in seemingly random places, at the side of someone’s house, down an alley, in the car parking lot. It was very surreal to just see the glow of a vending machine through the darkness!
Finally (finally) we got to our first hotel, a capsule hotel called The Lodge Moiwa. It was nothing like what I had imagined, the capsules were really roomy, with space underneath to put your luggage. We chilled for a while and went to bed!
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