01 Jun

Day 6 – Bullet Train to Kyoto

We were heading to Kyoto today!  We LOVED Disney, but were super excited to see more of Japan. 

We met in the lobby and ate, then took the shuttle to the train station.  We took a short train ride to Tokyo Station.

Tokyo Station was ginormous!  We got turned around for a minute, but eventually made our way to the ticket office to exchange our passes for Bullet Train passes. 

Then we walked a long long way to the train tracks!

Train!

We’re on!

There’s Mt Fuji over there!

We brought some sustenance.

I love this Coke bottle!

When we disembarked in Tokyo, I was once again surprised by how ginormous the Kyoto station was! And so busy! We ended up walking a long long way again. Partly trying to get our bearings, partly because of strange signage. But finally, we were out the right doors!

We had another Airbnb, and the instructions here were to meet at a reception house, and then they would take us in a van to the house.

During these travels, I was really noticing another thing about Japan. It’s sooooo safe.

When traveling in Europe and many other parts of the world, you have to be on your guard when you’re out in public. Pick pockets are everywhere in many tourist towns. You keep your money in a money belt, safely tucked in your clothes, you buy slash proof backpacks, bags that lock to chairs when you sit down to eat, etc. etc. Japan is nothing like that. I had no qualms about pulling out my cash in public to figure out how much I needed. I left my bag on a bench near Ally at the train station to go get a drink, and didn’t worry at all about it. I loved this way of traveling!

The reception house was great, they gave us lots of instructions and were super helpful. Then we piled in the van and went to the house!

I picked this house because it was within walking distance of Fushimi Inari, which was where I wanted to spend a lot of time. The house was super cute! Not super comfortable, but that’s fairly common in Japan. As I understand it, their houses are meant for function, not comfort. They don’t believe in living your life in your house, you should get out and live.

This philosophy actually takes on even more meaning, as I write this on day 70 of quarantining because of Corona Virus.

Here’s the living room! You’ll see you aren’t meant to lay down on the couch and watch TV all night.

I did love this house. It was adorable, authentic, and a great location! This was the little garden off the living room:

There was one bed here in the front room where Sherry slept.

Ally and I slept in the room off to the left at the top of the stairs.

Ileen and Mukta slept in the second upstairs bedroom.

We made them a second bed out of the ample bedding in the closets.

Here’s our house from the outside:

After we settled in, it was about time for dinner. We followed a lot of Tom and Sarah Bricker’s Japan travel recommendations, and I knew there was a Ramen place nearby that he loved. I did not realize it was on our street, just a couple of blocks down! Perfect!

It’s called Ramen Hiwamatanboru, and we also recommend it now!

We walked in and ordered on a computer with pictures, which was super helpful! It was a tiny place, but there was a table in the back that fit us all.

Coke!

This was mine! Yes, there are a lot of things I don’t eat in here, but I love noodles, so I was happy!

We also had an order of fried chicken, which was great.

After eating, we waked to Fushimi Inari. We also passed the metro stop nearest our house.

Looks like we are going in the right direction!

Made it!

There were a lot of people, but that was expected!

It was a little dark for pictures, but we did walk around for a while!

I planned to come back early on our last morning for more pictures in daylight, with less crowds too.

After we finished, we went into a 7-11 and got some breakfast, and some snacks. We had heard from several people before coming, that we should eat at 7-11.

I mean, several people. So many I believed them. And they were right!

There was so much food at 7-11’s! We ending up eating there, or getting food from there to take with us, a few times over the next few days!

Then we made our way back to the house.

When we got back, we all sat around our table with a giant map and made plans for the next day! Then it was bed time.

Tokyo or Bust!

Day 1 – On Our Way! To China? 
Day 2 – Hello, Japan! 
Day 3 – DisneySea 
Day 4 – Tokyo Disneyland 
Day 5 – Park Hopping 
Day 6 – Bullet Train to Kyoto
Day 7 – Massive Tour of Kyoto 
Day 8 – Back to Tokyo 
Day 9 – Home Again!