We got up early on Wednesday to do some final packing and organizing around the house. I had an errand to run before our flight, so I left early to visit the local DMV in Motomachi to get a fresh international driver’s license. This is a yearly thing now since my US license expired long ago, and now I have the procedure down pat.
Kuniko stayed back to vote, do a final cleaning and close up the house, and we ended up meeting in Sannomiya. The weather was getting really hot – I was wiping sweat continuously – and so we decided to hit a small Italian cafe for some bubbles (and air conditioning). We had lunch at a pretty authentic Chinese restaurant in Santica: tofu noodles, lamb skewers, boiled dumplings, and a couple of small canned highballs to pour over ice. The staff and most of the customers were all Chinese and speaking Chinese to each other – always a good sign.
We caught the bus to Itami airport, and had trouble checking in to the kiosk there. It turns out that since our connecting flight was international the kiosk would not accept our check in, but as usual the kiosk only threw an error and it was up to us to line up and speak to a human to get it sorted out. Our check-in clerk was very helpful and we checked our bag (all the way through to Toronto) and we were on our way.
Once we passed through security we couldn’t find any good restaurants so we ended up buying some Jagarico and some drinks and settled into a quiet corner of the terminal to relax. To buy the food and drinks we tried to use just coins to avoid carrying all that weight overseas, but we came up just two yen short. The clerk was funny and cracked some jokes – not your typical Japanese convenience store clerk.
As we waited for our flight they announced that it would be delayed 15 minutes, which put us under some time pressure in the next airport, Haneda. We had thought we’d have time to visit a wine bar that we like over there, but with the delay we ended up running for our gate. We were told to rush to bus #9, a free shuttle that runs between terminals, and luckily it was pretty quick. The security line was fairly empty – one staff tried to get us to go the long way and Kuniko gave him some sharp words, but then we made it through to immigration and I scribbled down the info on my re-entry form before running with Kuniko to the gate. We made it just as they called our group, and we even had time for the restroom before boarding ourselves. That was close!
We sat in the middle seats near the back of the airplane, with single guys on either side of us. Lots of big people flying home from their vacation in Japan. Kuniko played the hell out of Bejeweled (she got to level 41!!) and I watched a movie or two and slept a bit during the eleven and half hour flight.
At Toronto airport it took an hour to get through immigration, retrieve our suitcase, and go through customs. Kuniko was trying to explain to the immigration officer that I was “her husband in Japan” which sounded a bit weird but they let her through anyway.
At the airport we lined up to buy tickets for the train into town. In front of us a guy with no arms had his credit card declined – he used his foot to retrieve it and stepped aside so that we could get our tickets. We took the “express” train to get to downtown Toronto – but it wasn’t a very fast ride. The train felt a little old, and sometimes made weird gasping sounds that Kuniko imitated perfectly. We stopped at some lonely stations along the way – they were modern and clean and empty.
It was a 25 minute ride to Union Station, and then we pulled our suitcase a fair distance to get to our hotel. The smell of marijuana was thick in the air, something we were both surprised about. It was our first time in Toronto, and it is a pretty big city. Lots of restaurants with people outside enjoying drinks and conversation – we were arriving right as offices were closing up. The vibe was multi-cultural with many Asian people and restaurants around.
We used a code to enter our hotel, which was unstaffed and worked via a digital code system. The room itself was very comfortable and had a nice view of the street and downtown from the sixth floor.
Back outside we struggled to find an open table at one of the outdoor dining places, eventually we found one that looked promising, the staff helping us almost knocked her iPad off the podium. We sat next to a lively group of four women who looked like they had been drinking for quite a while. Our table must have been near a vent with hot air – even outside we were feeling pretty hot. Kuniko ordered a cocktail, I had a local beer (Creemore IPA) and a zucchini fritti which was mostly batter and didn’t really have much flavor.
But it was nice to finally arrive, and as I stretched out my arms in the air in contentment I almost punched one of the bus boys walking behind me – oops!
After our drink I tracked down a place that sold traditional poutine for take out. The place was cool – filled with huge bags of potatoes and a wide variety of different poutines that you could modify to your liking. We got the regular flavor, and then stopped at a supermarket on the way back to get a bottle of Niagara sauvignon blanc and some waters.
It was nice to snack on the poutine and sip white wine in the hotel – we finally went to hit the sack around 10 pm. It was a long day but we were eager to explore Toronto a bit more the next day.
