Trains, trains & more trains; mastering Tokyo's transport system

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Without a doubt the Tokyo train network must be the best in the world; it certainly beats Sydney, London and New York hands down. And we're doing our best to master it! Some of the stations are so huge they're almost like mini cities underground with department stores, restaurants, cafes and various other businesses as well as the multitude of trains lines, going here, there and everywhere. It's all clean, efficient and so easy to move around; well you do need to keep your wits about you!

On Monday we decided to take the train to Asakusa which was once called Edo and where you can step back in time as the suburb is centred around the centuries old Asakusa Kannon Temple or Sensoji. So the place was crawling with tourists. Ross had taken us there on our first visit to Tokyo and I wanted to re-visit the Kurodaya store, famous for its beautiful paper, cards and fans since it first opened in 1856. Well, you guessed it, the place was closed on Mondays!! All well.

We decided to walk to Tokyo's Sky Tree, about two kms away, to see if we could buy tickets to the top but that was being a bit optimistic as it seemed as though everyone else in Tokyo had the same idea. So we're hoping to make it on Thursday before we fly out. It's the tallest building in Japan and the second tallest in the world.

Disappointed, but to get away from the bedlam we headed off to Ginza (on the train of course) to visit the Sony shop and do a bit of shopping. Another walk and another train journey and we returned to our hotel where we decided to have our evening meal since Ross couldn't get away from work early enough to join us.

Tuesday saw us off on another Shinkansen, this time to the ancient city of Kyoto. Having visited Kyoto twice before - each time enthralled by the work being done on the Higashi Honganji - we decided it would be good to see what progress had been made. The mother temple of the branch of Shin Buddism, Higashi Honganji, is the biggest wooden building in the world. We discovered that work is still being carried on the temple and that it won't be finished until 2015 so we'll have to go back again.

Despite the fact that it was a humid hot day we set ourselves the task of walking up the steep streets in the Higashiyama area of Kyoto to explore the Kiyomizu Temple and Mayuyama Park; just beautiful.

Before our day in Kyoto ended, and we caught the Shinkansen back to Tokyo, we went up to the top of the Kyoto Tower for a fantastic view over the city which is surrounded by mountains. We were a weary pair of travellers when we finally arrived back at our hotel; a day to remember.

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Photos

The window of the shop which was closed
There was much more inside too