We started out by taking a bus from Illinois State University, 7AM on Monday to O'Hare in Chicago, flying on JAL to Tokyo - 1 - about 12 hours flying time, imigration and a couple of hour layover, - 2 - then a 2 hour flight to Sapporo, - 3 - then a 2 hour train ride standing because the for some reason all of the seats were full.