Hokkaido Backpacking Day 1: Incheon to Sapporo by JR Rapid Airport
Travel · Published 7/2/2024 ·
Early in the morning I left Sangam-dong in Mapo-gu, caught the first train from DMC Station, and made my way out to Terminal 2 at Incheon Airport. It was still hot out — muggy and humid.
The weather at my destination? 18 degrees. Yep — partly to escape the heat for a bit, I bit the bullet, booked a plane ticket, and flew off. Flights to Hokkaido aren’t cheap, though… anything under 100,000 won doesn’t even show up in a search, so I ended up paying around 350,000 won one way.
The plane I got was bigger than I expected. Even the engines looked chunky.
Here’s the plane climbing after takeoff. It spirals upward, round and round, gaining altitude. Airports always give me that flutter of excitement. We took off from Incheon Airport Terminal 2.
I filled out my arrival card, and after a little over two hours in the air, I landed at New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido. The return trip is listed at 2 hours 40 minutes, apparently — the flight out took a touch less.
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This is the Doraemon you run into first, right after clearing immigration. Before the trip I’d studied up on YouTube, and the videos said that once you spot Doraemon you head right and look for the train — and there it was, exactly where they said, which honestly amazed me. I went for something like a backpacking concept, so no rolling suitcase for me. I’ll cover this in a later post, but I actually came home with even less stuff than I brought ^^
Just as I’d researched beforehand, I withdrew yen from Seven Bank, which links up with Toss Bank. No need to exchange money in advance — it converts the moment you withdraw. You just keep cash in your account and it handles the rest automatically. So convenient.
I bought an Airport Line ticket to Sapporo Station. 1,150 yen — and it’s 1,910 yen all the way to Otaru, where I’d be heading later. Japan’s pricey transit hits you right from the airport. The machines support English and Korean, so buying a ticket isn’t hard at all.
I still can’t really read it, but some signs are written only in Japanese while others have English alongside. You’ve got to look carefully before you board.
This is the JR Airport Line down in the basement of New Chitose Airport. It’s an electric train with both reserved and non-reserved seats. The reserved seats seem to run on their own schedule, and they cost more too — just grab a non-reserved ticket and hop on.
I snapped the ad board in front of me too. It’d been a while since I’d been abroad, so everything was a delight.
The ticket… is bigger than you’d think. 1,150 yen. The weak yen helps a little, but the fares are still steep. It felt about three times what we’d pay back home.
I took a shot out the window as the train rolled along. By Korean standards it has the feel of an early-to-mid-90s subway station — think Garibong Station or Guro Station, or those old above-ground national railway stops. Worn, but clearly still doing its job. Most platforms had no screen doors.
Here’s the inside of the Rapid Airport train. Plenty of ads stuck up all over. Since the line runs a long stretch from the airport to Sapporo Station and on to Otaru, you hear a lot of boisterous chatter from people just back from trips. The train actually moved faster than I expected. It looks like it’s pushing 30 years old, but it was in good running shape. It got me to Sapporo Station in under about 50 minutes.
I got off at Sapporo Station and headed outside for a look. There’s a huge underground shopping arcade — it’s developed almost to the level of an underground city. First impression: more people than I’d expected, and clean and friendly.
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Since our concept was a backpacking workation, we wandered around hunting for a spot the locals might actually frequent, and had lunch at one we stumbled onto. We got two dishes under 1,000 yen each and a beer apiece — came to under 3,000 yen total. It was the kind of place where local office workers go for lunch, and the food was good. Cultural difference, but you could smoke indoors at the restaurant. I don’t smoke these days, but if I did, I think it would’ve taken me back to the old days.
This post is getting long, so I’ll wrap it up here and keep going in the next one.
Thanks for reading.
#Sapporo #Hokkaido #NewChitoseAirport #workation #Sangam-dong #firstairporttrain #JRRapidAirport #Otaru
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