Some 22 hours of flight time after beginning in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada I arrived at the Tokoyo, Narita Airport. I took this picture of Terminal 2 there. I probably wouldn't be allowed to take this photo today since airport restrictions have tightened since January 2003.
Well, I had a no problem getting through the metal detector at the Japanese Airport since I was now wearing a turtleneck sweater and slip-on pants with no belt and (no more metal buttons - I live - I learn). I cashed $ 40.00 Canadian Dollars in the airport at a Currency Exchange. I was to stay overnight stay at the Niko-Narita a hotel where all the Flight Attendants and crew from my plane were staying and I knew that I would be provided with a coupon for breakfast the next morning in the hotel but I would have to buy something to eat that night.
I was not prepared for how expensive everything was. Even the food in Japan was outrageously expensive. I remember thinking to myself, "No wonder all the Japanese people are so thin. They can't afford to eat." The average meal at my hotel [which by the way was nice but not a deluxe hotel - it was sort of like a Holiday Inn or a Howard Johnson's - not a Hilton by any means] was 7,000 - 8,000 yen [I figured it out to be something like $ 90.00 - $ 100.00 CDN] and that was for fish and rice. I used to eat Japanese take-out in Halifax all the time and I had gotten the same food for about $ 7.00 there. Lucky for me there was a little convenience store slash gift shop in the hotel and I bought some chocolate chip cookies for around $ 5.00 and since there was a kettle in my room and the hotel had provided a complimentary green tea bag at least I had some tea and cookies. The cookies were each wrapped individually. So much for the concern for pollution and the Kyoto Accord.
One good thing about staying at a hotel the airlines use is that they have some arrangement re: luggage. So,although I had to get my luggage in the Tokoyo-Narita airport and put in on the bus to the hotel using a luggage cart after that I didn't have to see it again until Korea. The hotel let me check the luggage through to the Seoul-Incheon airport.
Breakfast the next morning was amazing! It was a buffet and I met some Australian guy and we sat and ate together. Actually, I had met him the night before in the hotel store he was buying "Cup of Noodles" for his dinner. He was headed to some small town in Japan to teach English there. I guess we were both on a tight budget and starving so that morning we ate like pigs! We kept eating saying, "Might as well eat what we can. Who knows when we'll see bacon and cappuccino again..."
This is the ticket stub for the "Airport Limousine" a bus that travels between the two airports (the International and the Domestic - in Seoul, South Korea). The cost was 4,500 won or approximately $ 5.00 CDN
At the Seoul-Incheon [Korea] airport I had to get a luggage cart and my bags and go to a Kiosk and buy Korean money ( I only bought about $ 100.00 CDN worth of Korean money and it was on a Friday. It turned out not to be near enough money to have considering the banks were closed until Monday). Then I had to buy a ticket for a bus from the Incheon Airport to the Gimpo Airport. This confuses a lot of people. What you need to know is that Incheon is an International Airport and Gimpo is the Domestic Airport. For some reason Korea has divided the Internation and Domestic traffic between two airports. Koreans seem to understand and accept this situation but it is very confusing to foreigners.
Lucky for me my recruiter was a Canadian guy who had lived and taught in Korea so he knew what to tell me about travelling between the airports and to get a ticket for the shuttle bus between them. I have talked to people who didn't know they could do this and who had taken taxis and been charged at least $ 50.00 American Dollars for the trip. For whatever reason, it seems to be American Soldiers who have had this experience of wasting money for a taxi when for a tenth of the cost they could have gotten a bus.
The bus was very nice. It had single seats on each side of it and they reclined like arm chairs. The driver even took my luggage off of the luggage cart and put it in the bottom of the bus for me. The bus ride took between 30 - 45 minutes.
Kimpo (the Korean Domestic Airport) was okay but very small! And, I had to wait 4 hours for my flight to Daegu to be called. It was bright, loud, and uncomfortable. A very loud basketball game was on TV. But I amused myself by finding a free computer and checking my e-mail. I still wish the chairs hadn't been divided so I could have laid down and slept - even for a little while.
The flight from Kimpo to Daegu was without a doubt the worst part of my whole trip! The airplane was jammed and tiny! But luckily the flight only lasted 40-50 minutes. It was a Korean Airlines flight and it was definately not bilingual! No one spoke English. But I didn't even mind. I was just so glad that I was nearing my final destination!
My Korean Adventures continues....
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