TeetooArrival Day – New Chitose – Asahikawa
Taking Thai Airways, we landed at New Chitose Airport in the morning of a cool September. The sight of the northern land mass that is Hokkaido is such a welcoming sight everytime.
Hokkaido... we're back
New Chitose Airport - we love uAfter going through the necessary post-flight customs, we collected our Japan Wireless WiFi from JP Post New Chitose Airport. Location: Domestic Terminal Building, 2nd Floor (Departure Lobby), Business hour: 9:00–17:00 (Daily). Do take note of the operating hours if you’re flying in earlier or later. Throughout our journey, connection was always good. Highly recommended.
Going through our post-flight checklist, next is our JR Hokkaido Rail Pass which we collected from the JR Information Desk in the airport itself.
After grabbing some Snaffles pastry and asking a local bear for directions, we proceeded to JR New Chitose Airport station to board our train to Asahikawa city. Getting from the airport to the train station is quite straightforward with clear signs in a few languages.
すみませんクマWe bought 2 boxes of eki-ben (railway bento box) which is a must. Each train station has their own local eki-ben to try out but we just ting-tong-tiang (random) which one to buy. We wallop the bento in the station… that was how hungry we were.
Sake Matsuri Bento box and Kani (crab) and Ikura (fish roe) bento
Eniwa station
soon enough, the concrete jungle gave way to soothing greenery Slightly after 2 hours, we finally reach Asahikawa!! yahoo. We like this city because it is not very crowded and has a big Aeon building adjacent to the train station. bagus!!
Dance troupes with big flags welcomed us at Asahikawa Station. lol. 
Raided the nearest kombini (convenience store) we can find even before we checked in
only country where "mature" mags and Tom&Jerry sold on the same rack.. :)
favorite Nissin Cheese Curry - so so hojiak. We asked the staff to microwave for us... cannot tahan and we ate just outside the Lawson kombiniWe checked in our hotel at Premier Hotel – Cabin – Asahikawa which is less than a 100m walk from the train station with servicable business hotel room for 2 pax. Just nice for a night stay. Nothing fancy.
For an early dinner, we randomly tried a ramen restaurant called Baikoken Asahikawa Honten near our hotel. We had the extra large soy sauce Asahikawa Ramen with corn. That one bowl both of us struggled to finish. It was such a big bowl!! Underestimated liao.
not for small eatersAfter loading our stomachs, we had to walk around alot to burn off the extra load. Thankfully, the weather was cool and the city had large sidewalks to safely enjoy the main town center as the sun was setting.
very the nice city... not so busy, not so quiet
before balik to hoteru, another round of kombini raidAs the sun sets below the horizon, it began to be real chilly real fast. We adjourned inside a warmer Aeon for a quick Starbucks break and walkabout inside the small mall. During September it is best to have a jacket ready – don’t be like us.
Aeon - apa apa pun adaWe slept like a log coz was so so tired after a very long travelling day. Tomorrow will be an even longer train journey.
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