Above: I find a noodles sandwich strange, in that it’s all starch. What I find stranger is that it costs more than a hamburger. Seen at Narita Airport.
Flying to Ishigaki
With a flight at 1435 to Ishigaki today, we had a lazy morning, taking our hotel buffet breakfast around 0800. Checkout was at 1000 and we used the hotel shuttle to the airport at 1015. We could have taken the train around midday perhaps but there wasn’t anything left that we wanted to do around the Narita area.
Getting to the airport around 1030, we confirmed that Peach airlines opens for check-in strictly 90 mins before the flight. We had more than 2h to kill and utilised the drinks-only IASS Executive Lounge landside by showing our tickets (rather than boarding passes). Seating was firm and upright but it was free.
Kiosks for Peach accepted us exactly 90 mins before the flight and gave us our boarding passes. Bag-drop was painless and no identification was required here or at any time later.
Security was swift with no restrictions on liquid, aerosol or gel but my bottle of water was scanned with a special liquid scanner. I’m not sure what would have happened if I didn’t have a transparent bottle.
Domestic flights operate from a corner of the airport and it worked and felt like a tiny airport, which made it very efficient. We had about an hour to kill before remote-gate bus boarding commenced 25 min before departure (compared to only 20 mins for another flight).
The aircraft door closed 3 mins before departure, like clock-work. The 3h35 min flight to Ishigaki was uneventful. Seats on the A320neo were non-reclinable unfortunately. The crew were circulated through the cabin offering story books to young children on this relatively long domestic flight.
Arriving in Ishigaki
We landed 10 min ahead of schedule at Ishigaki airport. We’re now close to the most southern and western part of Japan. There was a small wait for the luggage and by the time we exited and got to the bus stop, the waiting bus was already chocka.
It was a short wait for the next bus. The accumulated waits had already become an hour since our landing. We departed at 1850 for the 30 min journey to the port area.
Our accommodation at Mr Kinjo Golden Cats was about 12 mins walk away. Dropping our bags in our compact studio apartment, we went out in search of dinner around 2000.
With most restaurants not set up for foreigners, it seemed like an easy solution to have A&W burgers. The outlet felt like something from the 70s in a worn original condition. But their burgers were so beautifully assembled, like in the photos, without begin squashed or mangled. I guess it’s because they’re wrapped in paper rather than having to be squashed into a box.
As expected, we found better choices for dinner straight after. Armed with some provisions from the convenience store, we returned to settle in for the night.
We appear to be somewhat in local time and retired around 2130. It had felt like a long unproductive day.
Random thoughts on Japanese life
Unlike in New Zealand and western countries, we found that products at convenience stores here (and Korea) are quite reasonably-priced. There doesn’t seem to be a huge premium for the convenience. Eg. a small drink in a convenience store in New Zealand often costs more than the largest possible one at a supermarket.
Food at the airport was also reasonable, eg. a burger for NZD2 and a rice patty with a large piece of chicken for only NZD3.
Cash still appears to be king. There are cash handling machines at tills so that cashiers don’t have to handle and manually count the cash. Whereas in other Asian countries, things have gone cashless.
Public buildings and facilities (eg. train stations, airports, buses, trains) in Japan don’t seem to be lavish or new. I guess the country developed a few decades ago and these facilities have been well-maintained. The airport apron buses that take passengers from the terminal to the remote gate were old step-up buses rather than the purpose-designed Neoplan ones in use even in third-world countries. Despite its advanced status, Japan seems to be quite thrifty.
Nepali workers are seen in various places, eg. hotel reception or cleaning, convenience stores. This isn’t something I’ve seen before in Japan, eight years ago. Hotel equipment such as fridges and washing machines are now Chinese ones, something I never would have expected.