Saturday, August 24th
Kyoto Day! Well, I'm still not sleeping normal hours. Jet lag has truly done a number on me on this trip. Today I woke up at 3:19 and we were all up and dressed early (again) and headed down to our last breakfast at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa. At 7:00 a.m. we needed to have our luggage downstairs at the porter because it was being transferred for us to Kyoto. So, we took care of that and headed off to eat. We needed to be back in the lobby by 8:00.
Kawaii breakfast pastry at our hotel
After breakfast we were greeted by our personal guide and escorted to Sinangawa Station to board the bullet train! We were all very exited to experience the Shinkansen - and it was very cool indeed! I had the window seat and loved watching us pass by at crazy high speeds! It was overcast so I did not get to see Mt Fuji like I had hoped I would. But, nevertheless, it was still really cool to be on this 2.5 hour high speed train ride!
Shinagawa Station
This is what almost 200 mph looks like....
We arrived in Kyoto at 12:15 and were met by a tour guide at the station who brought us to our hotel - The New Miyako Hotel, Kyoto - which was gorgeous! We were a bit too early to check in (2:00 is check in time) so Noreen, my mother in law and I explored the mall...yes, there was a mall across the street from Our hotel! Actually, if you go out the main entrance Kyoto Station is directly across the street and if you go out the back entrance, the Mall is across the street. We discovered our first Daiso store.... everything is only 100 Yen! Totally blows our dollar stores away. No comparison. After this we went back at 2:00 and checked in and then up to see our rooms. They were very nice but much smaller than the rooms were in Tokyo. My In laws room was right next door to me again which was super convenient. Our view....a wall. At first my mother in law wasn't happy about it. But the location was GREAT. We took the elevator down to the lobby and the back entrance was right there.....easy access to the shopping mall! No joke....this was a HUGE plus for me. My in-laws were a bit tired and wanted to relax so I phoned up Charles and Noreen and 15 minutes later we were off exploring!
Courtyard at our hotel
One of the lounge areas of our hotel
My room - very nice
This Kooky TV game show was on...I couldn't resist
Charles, Noreen and I explored Kyoto Station a little bit, picked up some snacks at a conbini and then headed outside. We took a stroll up the street and visited a temple that was about a 2 minute walk from our hotel. Not surprising as there are 1600 shrines and temples located in Kyoto. Charles decided to walk on to down town but Noreen and I wanted to explore the station. On our way back we noticed the was a band (orchestra really) playing. There was a special summer event going on at the station. They were really great - as we got closer we realized they were kids! I'd say 12 years old - and amazing! We stayed and watched until they were done playing. When we entered the station there we 2 young girls (jr high) who asked if they could interview me for their English language homework! So cute! As a "thank you" they gave me a piece of Japanese candy. I wanted to give them something too -- I found 2 pennies inside my bag and gave it to them to bring back with their homework. It was one of my favorite memories of the entire trip!
After saying goodbye to my new little friends, Noreen and I explored the shops inside Kyoto Station and I found a gorgeous one that sold authentic "made in Japan" items - this family business dates back to 1600's (obviously not in that location) but the owner is one of the artists and she hand paints scarves, fans, postcards, art work, etc. I picked up some nice items there that I will be giving as Xmas gifts to some family members...and a few for myself of course. Then we went back to our rooms to get ready for dinner. My in-laws and Charles wanted sushi and Noreen and I did not so we went out on our own and I had the best Cobb salad I ever ate! Of course after dinner we explored the mall some more! I was back to my hotel room by 10:00 and I was super tired so off to bed I went!
Next post can be found HERE - Day 7 Full day Kyoto Tour
Q1) I noticed in the pictures the sign boards in the train-station were all in Japanese , with no subtitles in English ... Was that the case ? I mean , if you are there , and cannot even talk the basic Japanese , you will totally get lost ? How will you know which ticket center is where or which train is leaving from where etc etc .
ReplyDeleteQ2) Also I wanna ask that for each trip in the subway/metro around city did you purchase separate tickets each time ?
Some boards were only in Japanese, some were in both English and Japanese. There are many information centers within the station if you need help with trains or sightseeing, shopping, dining etc. It seems that everyone speaks some English so I was always able to find help if I needed it.
DeleteI did not purchase train tickets while in Kyoto other than my return transport to Tokyo. Because this portion of my trip was part of Gate1 travel agency 9 day tour the full day Kyoto tour was included. The following days in Kyoto we utilize taxi cabs to take us to Gion and other times we were able to walk to many things from our hotel as it was very centrally located. The only time I was confused in Kyoto was after I had entered the area to go onto the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. I went through the turnstiles and followed the signs to the elevator to go to the platform but I was on the elevator by myself and couldn't understand the writing in the elevator to figure out which floor I needed to go on so I ended up pressing all 3 floors and peeked out each time before I found the correct platform.