Japan 2009: Travel Day - Toyko to Kyoto

We got up early today to get ready to check out. Steve and Mary tossed their clothes back into the dryer (the previous night's attempt at doing laundry backfired when the dryer barely worked and the clothes stayed soaked) as they hadn't come close to drying in our air conditioned room. We packed and headed downstairs for our last lovely free Japanese style breakfast. I don't have any of the salads on the plate here (I ate some of the mystery root salad the first day but decided later it tasted sorta fishy - oops!) I've got rice, miso soup, plain yogurt with fruit, hard boiled egg, rolls, black coffee and some orange juice.

After we ate, we went back up to the room, grabbed our stuff and checked out. We made our way through the station/pedestrian underpass on our way to the JR platform. We needed to take the train for a few stops to Tokyo Station to catch the bullet train. Steve insisted on being manly and helping us carry our luggage, but after a while the stairs got ridiculous - Steve and Mary would collapse the handles on their rolling suitcases to carry them up half a flight of stairs, turn a corner and have to carry them back down half a flight. They'd roll farther and find a full flight up. It was comical, but I also felt bad being the only one with a bag instead of a suitcase. We got to the terminal quite early so we relaxed in the lounge and attracted some stares from commuters. 

Eventually it was nearly time for our train to arrive, so we grabbed some snacks and headed up to the platform. The previous train was just heading out, and ours arrived right after. We got to watch the crew "turn around" the train (literally and figuratively). The cleaning crew worked fast to pick up discarded garbage, dust the seats, replace the head cloths, and turn all the seats to face forward. Eventually it was time to board. We were at the very back of the train, which was mostly empty. It was also very spacious. I had so much room that it was almost a hassle to reach my tray!

Mary and Steve let me have the window seat because I'm a huge dork and I love watching the world out train and plane windows. It didn't take long to get through Tokyo and into the outskirts, and then the countryside. The vegetation here really is amazing. The trees grow so densely! The rice fields are nice looking too. It was really fun to zip through looking at small towns and rural areas. I even saw the sea for a while. It was really one of the nicer train trips I've taken. In the US, the only train I took was from Rochester NY to NYC, and that was terrible - no AC, nothing to look at but the ass end of upstate NY, and nothing to do (no book, no cell phone, no DS). In Europe a lot of the train rides were pretty too, but it was a solid mix of pretty and industrial. There was a bit of that on this trip, but not too much.

We reached Kyoto pretty quickly, and hopped off the train. We took the subway a few stops, and from there it was a few blocks to our hotel. We were pretty tired so we relaxed until the restaurant downstairs opened, and grabbed dinner ("Italian" food - note to travelers, do not order risotto in Japan). After dinner, we walked to the arcade and took in a bit of Kyoto after dark, including the Geisha district near the river. More on all this to follow!