Japan – Day 4

Today, I made my way to Sapporo to see my friends Dave and April and their kids. A quick refresher in case you don’t know: Sapporo is on the island of Hokkaido while Tokyo, of course, is on the island of Honshu. There is a train that connects the islands, but I opted for a flight — one that happens to leave from the Haneda Airport in Tokyo at 8:00am. Since the subway doesn’t open until 5:00am, I was worried about making it early enough in case I took the wrong one, etc., but I didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for a cab. (Astute followers of these travelogues will note that catching the right train has not exactly been my strong suit). After checking out of my hotel, I asked a taxi driver the cost for a ride to the airport. He quoted me 900 yen (which is not what I expected at all — but hey less than $10 Canadian — so, what a steal!) Soon the ride started with a base fare of 500 yen and started counting up by 100 yen every 10 seconds or so. I quickly realized he probably meant to…