Well hey there! It’s been a while…
And yes, I’ve already arrived safely in Tokyo a few days ago and now pretty much settled in (not including practical matters like city hall registration, getting a phone card etc.).
So, instead of beginning my story with Japan…
Let’s start off with Finland.
I’ve actually never visited any Scandinavian countries before, not even once. All I have were stories of my parents visiting places like Stockholm, Gothenburg or Oslo to meet with business colleagues or friends.
And so came the time when I have to transit in Helsinki for 2 hours before continuing my journey to Tokyo.
Departing from Amsterdam Schipol at 1155, I arrived in Helsinki-Vantaa Airport at 1455. Having that it’s a Nordic country, I was expecting some super cold weather or maybe dropping to below 15°C. Luckily it wasn’t too bad, it’s also still midsummer anyway.
For an airport in Finland, I was actually surprised by how many flight connections Finnair itself had. So the airport was actually filled with tourists from China or Korea and most of all, Japan. It also turns out that apart from Tokyo, Finnair also flies to other parts of Japan like Osaka or Nagoya, now that definitely explains the population of visitors at the airport.
During the past few weeks, I asked my Finnish friends for suggestions on what to do or buy at the Finnish airport. I mainly got 2 answers: Fazer and Moomins.
And as I hunt for my transfer gate and EU passport control, apart from being greeted by duty-free stores filled with said Fazer chocolate, the Moomin hoard too came along.
Getting from one gate to the other actually took quite some time, so after passing passport control, I couldn’t go back to the Moomin flagship store even if there were still stores that sell goods of that adorable white hippo after the counter. Despite plans to enter the Moomin store, many Japanese tourists crowded the Moomin store, therefore reinforcing my choice of not going in to browse.
I wasn’t keen on splurging my last bit of Euros, especially since things in Scandinavia tend to be more expensive (You’re not in the Netherlands anymore when a cup of cappuccino goes from €2.80 to €3+ per cup). My hand-carry was also pretty heavy since I’ve stuffed extras from my luggage to get past the weight limit while dropping my bag at Schipol. Hence I focused on obtaining a bar of Fazer chocolate despite the tempting Moomin merchandise. I’ve managed to walk around the remaining part of the airport and compared some prices, and trudging from one end to the other; I’ve got myself a decently priced bar for €4.
I also wasn’t sure about getting something to drink before boarding, but I still pressed on and good thing I made that choice as later on the plane things were actually surprisingly better.
2 hours went by quickly from getting through passport control to finding my gate, and the next thing you know it’s back on the plane for a 9 1/2 hour journey to Narita.
And one last thing to wrap up my Finnish experience, a decently-sized bar of Fazer came with my dinner on board. 😀
Despite spending such a short amount of time (Still didn’t beat my record of 20 minutes in Belgrade), it made me keen on staying and visiting Finland whenever I can in the future. It obviously has higher prices but it would be nice to explore whatever’s beyond the Finnish airport.
Someday then…
Note to self: plan a trip to Finland when I’m back in the EU. 🙂
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