Today we said good-bye to Tokyo and hello to Kyoto. I was sad to leave our nice hotel in Ginza, but I ended up loving our Kyoto hotel too! Overall it was a bit stressful this day. There wasn’t quite enough time to plan activities in either city, so it was awkward at times. Also it was raining during our travels, which made walking with suitcases and umbrellas between stations and hotels difficult. But you’ll see we still had a good time!

Good-bye, hotel!
Ben purchasing our eki-ben
He got #51
I got #25 (but I didn’t eat it until later in the hotel. The train motion made eating hard for me.)
We rode many many many escalators while in Japan.
Here’s the Shinkansen!

Here’s what it looks like on the train. Ben was glued to his window the entire 2 hours. I tried to nap. My folks sent a funny video showing us zoom across the country.

We reserved a row in the special Green car next to oversized luggage storage. That probably wasn’t necessary, but we were happy with it.
Roomy seats with many pull-out trays from the front and side arms.
Ben points to the Tokyo Tower as we fly by.
Snack time!
Ben happily tucks into his bento box.
A small meal for me. (With my smuggled plastic straw.)
No Mt. Fuji for us today. Too cloudy.

Blowing wind and rain greeted us in Kyoto. We scampered to our our hotel and dropped off luggage (to early to check-in) then went to McDonald’s for drinks and Shaka Shaka fries. (It’s fun to try unusual products not sold in your own country, but I was underwhelmed.)

Kyoto Station had a skyway where we could survey the whole city. We spent some time exploring the station while hiding from rain.

As the rain lightened up we took the train one stop over to Tōji Temple. We didn’t go in, just walked around the grounds. We made a pit stop at a conbini to fix blisters and wet socks, and smiled while passing a group of high school boys. (We saw school-aged kids in uniform everywhere, every day, at all times of day! Why are they always out and about??)

I wanted to try a traditional mochi confectionary shop on the walk back to our hotel. Ben helped me communicate my purchase politely with the elderly couple who spoke zero English. On the way back we found an interesting “Witch House,” a small shrine, and the PHP building.

Finally it was time to check into our hotel! I booked their largest room with a view of the Nishi Hogan-ji Temple. I loved this view! It was a pleasure to see every morning and night. I changed into dry lounge clothes provided by the hotel and tucked into my sweets. So good! Seriously, the soft mochi with adzuki wrapped around the outside was one of the best local treats of the trip. The soybean powder dusted mochi was pretty good too.

After a refreshing rest we walked to Yodobashi Cameral mall food court for omurice.

Hooray for English menus! Hooray for padded booths for tired legs!
Hooray for greens!
Full bellies, walking home.

We hurried back to the hotel for a shiatsu massage in my hotel room! One of the best decisions of the trip! Holy cow, was this good for my aching muscles. It was super cheap by American standards and kind of weird (fully dressed, laying on my side in bed, she used a towel instead of lotion/oil). It was so great though, I did it again two days later! During my massage Ben went wandering in the atmospheric rain. Here are some of his pics.

A cigarette machine! On the street!
Goin’ to the onsen!

After the massage I bravely dipped in the public bath. I specifically chose this hotel because it had an attached onsen. We were both curious to try this classic Japanese pastime. I figured wandering down from our room would be easier than packing up and picking a random place in town. To our shock we LOVED it! A quiet, hot soak was such a relaxing way to end the day. The hotel had two baths – a larger one with an outdoor tub built with rocks from Mt. Fuji, a sauna, and a cold dip. The smaller bath had a basic indoor soaking pool. The hotel swapped gender assignment each night, so we both got to use both rooms twice (yes, we went all four nights!)