From Sapporo to Shinjuku

Nine and a half hours of travel and we have returned to what feels like our second home, the Prince Hotel in Shinjuku. The weather was wet all the way down, the first time we have actually needed the umbrella.

We left Sapporo at 7am on the Super Hokuto. Unfortunately, we were seated on the right, away from the ocean views. Not enough space for our luggage either. Three hours later and it was straight across the platform at Hakodate to the Super Hakucho.

A bit more scenic on that train, with views of the lonely grey sea and the quiet villages beside it. I should love to have stopped and dine at some restaurant overlooking it. But then it was beneath the Seikan tunnel and back to Honshu and Shin-Aomori, a trip that took two hours.

From Shin-Aomori up the escalators and on to the Hayate Shinkansen to Omiya in Tokyo, three and a quarter hours later. I spent the time writing my blog, amusing Alex and sleeping, as did B. Finally a local train to Shinjuku station, where I had to brave the rain to carry the luggage to the hotel.

That left some time for shopping and browsing at Takashimaya, Tokyu Hands and Tower Records, before we retreated under the rain to the comfort of our tiny, trendy, familiar room.

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My first overseas trip: Singapore and Malaysia

I've always loved to travel. My first memory is of sitting in a an aircraft, aged 18 months or so. Yet I never believed that I could travel overseas. To me, it seemed like something you did when you retired, or if you were rich. That all changed when I met B. She had not only travelled overseas, she was from overseas . B was born in Malaysia and arrived in Australia, with her family, in 1988. She still had relatives and friends in Malaysia and Singapore and she, along with the remainder of her family, planned to return for a visit during the Australian summer of 1995. At the time I was staying in B's mother's house while we were studying at university. After B's father passed away the year before I was the nominal "man" of the house and its high maintenance garden; her brother Michael was studying up in Queensland. B and I were quite inseparable and her mother kindly offered to pay for me to join them on their vacation. So it was that I obtained my very firs...

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