Our Last Days in Hokkaido: When the JR Trains Stopped in Otaru
Travel · Published 7/19/2024 ·
Our last dinner in Japan…
Sushi + mentaiko = heaven.
The next morning we grabbed something from a convenience store — sounds lazy, but honestly it was delicious. From the left: omurice, a salad (the staff kindly asked if we’d be okay without dressing), a sandwich, a banana, and so on.
That sweet-and-salty combo keeps pulling you back… plus a little something to make up for all the fiber I’d been missing.
The sandwich…
FamilyMart… or is it “Famima”…?
We stopped by Don Quijote to pick up some souvenirs — starting with the snacks…
So many different jellies… I grabbed a ton.
The souvenir selection was kind of meh, though… Next time I should try somewhere else.
And then lunch… which was the real, authentic local thing? We went out for ramen, but… it was salty… and had a strong smell… I’m just not used to the local flavors yet, haha. It was a struggle to eat. Something a bit more refined, like Ippudo, was fine, but… anyway… full-on Japanese ramen has a bit of a smell to it and is really, really salty.
At Otaru Station… we booked our tickets all the way to New Chitose Airport, and since we had some time to kill, we headed out to tour around the station.
I’d gone in expecting something with a kind of market vibe… but it turned out to be one single shop and that was it. The rest was just a parking lot. This is to the left of the plaza at Otaru Station.
We wandered around the area near Otaru Station once, then twice…
…and when we came back — wait, what?? The train was delayed.
We canceled our tickets and got a refund, then rebooked, then canceled again… back and forth, in and out, over and over… until service was suspended altogether. Basically every train leaving Otaru heading to Sapporo Station and New Chitose Airport had stopped running.
One of us went to ask at the bus terminal, which is right outside Otaru Station…
Ah… Otaru… maybe you’re just not ready to let us go yet?
We agonized over it… and agonized some more… If we missed today’s flight, there was no plan B…
The JR lines, stopped… ugh…
We booked tickets again…
…made it to the platform, but there wasn’t a single person there…?
So back down we went and got another refund…
We decided to take the bus, but the line wrapped all the way around… and they said it’d be over an hour before we could leave.
Standing in a line more than 200 meters long…
When we explained that we were foreigners who had to get to the airport and catch a flight today, the lady managing the line let us cut ahead.
The line was that long, but we got lucky and boarded a bus in just 30 minutes.
They called this a highway, but… it was only two lanes, and one of them was closed for construction. It was maddeningly slow, and we finally crawled our way into Sapporo Station. By this point it was already past 3 p.m. We wanted to check whether the subway — the cheapest and fastest way to get from Sapporo Station back to New Chitose — was running. On Google Maps there were still two incidents showing: 1) a signal failure, and 2) a system inspection in progress.
Through all of this, the bus driver was incredibly kind…
Sapporo Station… how many times now…?
In case the subway was still down, we’d signed up for a Japanese version of Uber (or something similar) just to be safe. And whenever we asked people around us about a situation like this, everyone said the same thing: whatever you do, do NOT take a taxi. The estimated fare? Around 300,000 won.
Thankfully, the trains were running!!
Or wait… not running — OUT OF SERVICE???
But then it was running after all…
By the time we got there, though, our flight was delayed an hour. It had left Incheon late, so even though the plane had arrived, they told us to wait while they cleaned it up and got everything ready. Well, we’d made it to the airport, so… no complaints.
We looked around here and there for a bit…
…and then boarded.
Cramped little economy seats… When I’d booked the flight, I’d mistakenly thought I’d reserved this meal for the trip from Korea to Japan — but out came the yeolmu (young radish) bibimbap. The very bibimbap that would surely cut through all the richness of the Japanese food… I’d completely forgotten about it.
The sun is setting… Goodbye, Hokkaido…
Got off at Incheon Airport to find it absolutely flooded…
It was pouring rain at Incheon Airport. Jin Air’s gate is way out at the very far end of the airport… you get off onto the tarmac and ride a bus for ages, like a long commute.
I never imagined the JR lines could actually stop… It was quite the ordeal, but thankfully we made it home safe.
This was my first trip to Japan. I set off without any real plans. It was wonderful. I’d love to go again. With a lighter bag next time… After all, if you have no plan, you have no plan to fail — so you can’t really fail, haha.
When we arrived and went to catch the subway, the express and the local trains left from different spots, so I asked where to go for the 22:30 train… and the station attendant’s answer was… (without even looking up)… “I’m not really sure.” In that moment, it hit me, loud and clear: yep, I’m back in Korea. Lol.
Thank you for reading.
#NewChitose #Hokkaido #Sapporo #Otaru #SummerHokkaido #SummerOtaru #SummerSapporo #JinAir #InFlightMeal #Bibimbap #UnplannedTravel #JapanBackpacking
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