Tokyo to Kyoto ... ToKyoto ... To Kyoto

As my title implies... today we headed to Kyoto. We were pretty relaxed about it though. I bought breakfast of toast, jam and a rice ball for myself Margaret and Jacob, who had treated me yesterday. Long story short, the morning was some relaxed farewells, breakfast, packing and checkout. We will be seeing Jacob again though as we are all returning to that hostel for the end of next week. Plan is to all go to the fish market together.

Anyway, so Margaret and my adventure started today by taking the subway to a station where we could exchange our vouchers for 7 day rail passes. After that we had to take a JR (japanese rail) train to Tokyo station where we would catch a bullet train to Kyoto. Again, everything went smoothly. When in Tokyo Station we bought lunch at one of the various stands. They are literally boxed lunches, but full of freshly cooked rice, meat and veggies. I also had some warm tea to go with it.

The train was also fairly uneventful. The ride from Tokyo to Kyoto took us about 2.5 hours. While the view in front of us was a bit difficult, our side views led to some nice landscapes. My favorite was as we crossed through the mountains, and nearly the entire range was coated in a layer of snow. I've always been visually impressed by snow-covered peaks. So, we arrived at Kyoto station mid-afternoon and took a slow walk to our hostel. Again, checkin went smoothly.

A few more fun notes on Japan/the hostels/the culture. So many places require no shoes. I love it. Not that it really would effect me too much because I prefer not wearing shoes, but its another small aspect that makes me feel comfortable here. Secondly, the toilets are ridiculous. Aside from having more buttons and features then most current electronics, they have a sink on top. That said, my favorite aspect is by far the heated seats. These are all over Tokyo too... I just forgot to mention them.

Moving on, our afternoon/evening was simply a walk to both explore and find dinner. We wandered some streets back towards the Kyoto Station and stopped in just about every small shop on the way. Eventually we found ourselves in Kyoto Tower, which is basically a 7 floor electronics mall (and 2 more basement floors). The sixth floor however is dining. Margaret had a chicken flavored udon soup and I had plain udon with tempura. They were both delicious and I love that meals come with hot tea!

After dinner we intended to explore a bit more before heading back. So we continued down the street and entered another complex of stores. We saw lots of fun trinkets and souvenirs, some of which I may purchase in the coming days... anyway, we explored around and went up and down... and then there was no way up. But all the exits led down... but by this time we were underground. We continued around... getting completely disoriented, until we somehow ended up in the Kyoto Tower again. However we were confused when we couldn't find the main entrance, and then realized we were in the second basement.

It sounds a bit ridiculous... how could you get lost in this building... but you definitely can! It was a maze and overwhelming numbers of distractions at that. But, we made it out and headed back to call it a quiet and early evening. Tomorrow I hope to find some temples!

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