Day 8 - End of FlyDrive tour AND Day 1 - Tokyo on our own

Last day of FlyDrive tour. Brekky, checkout, and a nice slow drive to Chitose Airport some 50km away, where Penny dropped off with luggage leaving me navigatorless to drive to the Toyota Rent A Car depot which wasn't where car was handed to us in the Airport carpark but 6km away, which gave her worries that I'd end up back in Sapporo.

It wasn't a problem of course, but have to admit, it was a bit of a worry as the scenery on both sides consisted of forest and/or cleared land and I thought I could be heading away from the airport. But there it was, a large area newly constructed for car rental companies. Drove into the wrong one, was helped with instructions to the correct one, dropped car, took out the ICU card, and free-shuttled back to the airport. Eileen was on same shuttle.

Found Wife (airport is huge if you're looking for someone!) who had completed luggage check-in with Meng's help.

Returned ICU card, handphone and accessories, all in a pouch, to Meng (or was it Lance?) and everyone dispersed to explore the airport for restrooms and refreshments and snacks.



Yuki brought out a few carrier bags containing boxes of that very famous Hokkaido die-die-must-try-and-buy potato fries. Many of us weren't able to buy any during our stay in Hokkaido as they were always sold out whenever we remembered to get some. He shared out the little packets from a box, and gave a box to each "car" and another to those who weren't able to buy any during the tour.

It was true to its reputation, very good nibble tidbit. It was dehydrated very crisp french fries, just slightly fine salted. Somebody should try and produce something like this in Singapore.








Here's one of the restrooms - check out (click photo to enlarge) what it's called; most apt, I must say. And, you can easily get your re-fills too!

No protruding taps etc at the washbasin. Neat.



As usual, had to spend some time deciding on what to buy for lunch, as there was so much to choose from. Box lunch was advised in view of waiting for plane at Chitose Airport, no meal on flight to Haneda Airport, waiting for limo bus at Haneda Airport, and a 90 minute ride into Shinjuku, Tokyo.




Boxed food in Japan is state of the art. And laid out in chill cases. So you will not experience opening a box to find odorous stuff that was packed earlier in the day. So how is it that our food sellers at home don't get it that good food plus good keeping equals many customers?



We ended up with noodles and nigiri which were good and substantial.

At Haneda Airport, everyone split up. Some (six including us) took the limo buses (at different times depending on the destination district eg Shinjuku, Asakusa, etc) to Tokyo, some took the shuttle bus to Narita Airport for connecting flight home (Singapore). I believe a couple didn't take the flight from Chitose as they had driven to Furano for another night, while yet another would meet at Narita as they would come in on another flight, having driven to Hakodate the day earlier. Wow!



Checked into the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku and went to the JR Shinjuku Station about half a km away to find out about getting to Mt Fuji in the next few days and to explore the many surrounding shopping centres. This hotel's a good choice as it is a stop on the Friendly Airport Limo route.

Our room was spacious, and had an excellent bathroom.



Had dinner at a food court in one of the two Lumiers linked to the station. Got something for supper too.







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