Homeward Bound

Our last day was not of any particular note. Check-out time was 10am, and since there didn’t seem to be anything to do in Chitose we decided to just go to the airport really early, do our gift shopping, find a place to sit, and hang out until it was time to leave. The lines at the airport were really confusing, and we stood briefly in two different incorrect lines before an airline spokeswoman rounded us up and put us in the right one. After that we went to get our all-important souvenir shopping done at one of the many shops that they have for just that purpose. I decided on these corn and white chocolate snacks that sort of taste like rice crispies treats and something called ‘shiroi koibito’, which is a famous Hokkaido souvenir that is basically thing vanilla wafers with white chocolate in between. Awhile ago (I’m not certain when exactly) there was a scandal where it was discovered that the shiroi koibito distributors had been taking expired boxes, changing the dates on them, and then selling them. This seems to have been cleared up, as it is once again a popular item. After this we headed to the restaurant area which had a lounge near a coffee stand and hung out there. There was a lot of noise, however, from some sort of event that involved women dressed up as characters from a popular girl’s television show posing for pictures with their young fans. It was a little odd. Lunch was over-priced pizza preceded by the best soft-serve ice cream that I’ve ever had, the plane ride was longer than I had remembered but uneventful. It’s good to be back in Kyoto.
-I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but if you are travelling domestically in Japan you do not need to present your ID at security, and you can keep your shoes on. They also do not seem to have the same liquid rule that they do in the states, as my friends was advised to take the beer that he had bought as a gift for his host family on the plane with him.
-There seem to be two schools of thought on how to costume real people as animated characters. The first (the one with which I was familiar) is that since the characters are supposed to be humans, they should just be people dressed in the character’s costume. The second (the one I saw at the airport) seems to be that since animated characters have a very distinctive look that does not work well on real people, they should be costumed head-to-toe, with masks and gloves and no actual skin showing. I understand this, but it’s a little creepy.
-I love seeing new places, but it’s nice to have the privacy of my own room.