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The shoebox
Doesn't really give you much of indication how small it is. The bed you can just see is a single. The door you can see is to the bathroom Konnichiwa
Today dear readers is a bit of a lite affair.
Today was a traveling day for me as I parted ways with my initial home of Ginza Tokyo to travel south to Kyoto.
Kyoto as I found out yesterday was the original capital of Japan. Kyo which is present in both cities names means capital. Tokyo means East Capital, Kyoto means west capital.
Tokyo is recognised as the official capital city as this is where the seat of government is based as well as the imperial palace. So there's your history lesson for the day.
Yesterday I had my first train experience with my ventures to Disneyland.
Today that was going to be taken up a notch with my first experience at riding the Shinkansen or "bullet train".
The distance between the 2 cities is around about 500km's roughly the distance Wellington to Tokoroa.
I left the hotel at 9:50 to take the free bus to Tokyo station. From yesterdays learning's I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice and quickly found my way to the main station. Great awesome.... oh shit, I have no idea which gate I am meant to go to
The bathroom
A feat of modern engineering to have so many amenities wedged into a room so small. to board the train.
The train was departing at 10:33 and it was already 10:15 and remembering the walk to the right platform yesterday it was going to be tight to make the train. I knew the train was called "Hikari" but I had no idea where the line for it was. The signage refers to the final destination of the train. I was getting off before the final destination so I had no idea which train I was catching.
I ended up asking one of the guys at the ticket counter who was initially confused at my question. When he finally twigged he looked at his watch then with the look that says "geez you are cutting it fine" he pointed me to the direction of gate 16 where the "Hikari" boards. It's hard to walk fast with a fully laden pack on your back and a heavy shoulder bag also in your grasp.
It didn't matter in the end as I made it to the platform just as the train was pulling in. In the end I had about 10 mins to spare.
The Bullet trains are an impressive site. The one I was on probably had
Inside the Bullet Train
Much like the inside of an Airplane. Just bigger windows and more legroom. 10 carriages, with each carriage holding around 100 - 150 people. The seats were similar to airline seats but the legroom is big enough to comfortably sit a pack in front of you.
The train ride itself took around 3 hours and it stopped at around 6 stations on the way. At up to 300Km's per hour these things really move and put our aging tranz-metro trains to shame. This train could do the Wellington - Auckland run in about 4 hours.
Unfortunately the speed of the train didn't leave any opportunity to take photo's along the way. If I saw something worth photographing, by the time I switched the camera on it was already well gone. Not to mention the motion sickness you got when you looked at things that were close eg houses as they flashed by.
After we had moved out of the Tokyo prefecture the scenery changed somewhat. Heavily built up areas were replaced with acres and acres of rice paddies, vegetable farm land and a mixture of light and heavy industry the further south we travelled.
I mentioned in an earlier blog that they seemed to put rice paddies in every
Camera shop in Nagoya
Managed to take 1 photo whilst stopped at Nagoya station. available piece of green land. I stand by that statement even more. Rice Paddies filled vacant lots between houses or backyards it was really quite bizarre.
Throughout the journey there were built-up areas, very little of the countryside is unblemished in terms of high-rise office buildings or apartments or industrial buildings.
We passed factories for well known brands such as Yamaha, Sony and Shiseido. Their magnitude was something to behold and it's highly likely they were only smaller plants or distribution centres.
I enjoyed sitting in the train watching the world go by. It was comfortable and peaceful (except for the head-banging music I had playing in my headphones). For much of the journey the 2 other seats in my aisle were vacant. I was joined for a short portion in the latter stages by a young business woman who must of been amused at this guijen beside her mouthing strange words and rocking slightly (I was getting into the music if you hadn't figured that out, not thinking I had been possessed or something).
The majority of occupants on the train were business people. Travel by train is far more cost and time effective in Japan
The warehouse
This room is about 3 times the size and has both a single and double bed in it. than air travel as train stations are easy to get to and trains are comparatively cheap.
It seemed most of the European travelers aboard (not that many compared to Japanese travelers) all got off at Kyoto. It is a popular place for tourists as it is a very old city and has a lot of historical sites and temples (which I will be able to tell you more about tomorrow after I have completed my tour of the city).
There was an Australian couple who got off the train with me that I struck up a brief conversation with. The husband was getting frustrated as he couldn't seem to be able to get an english version of the Kyoto tour map. I don't think I helped matters when I showed him I already had one which my travel agent had given me. Ah well always good to get one over the Aussies!.
I bid them farewell and went in search of a taxi to take me to my hotel. The Karasuma Kyoto hotel. It was about a 10 minute ride to the hotel. The hotel itself is much bigger than the one I was at in Tokyo, certainly the room is a warehouse in size comparison.
After checking in I took a wander around the streets close to the hotel. It didn't take long to end up on a main shopping street. My first effort was to find food. I hadn't eaten breakfast and it was 2pm.
Food is an area I am really struggling with. I really want to experience some of the Japanese food, however it is nigh on impossible to find a place to eat that is a: reasonably priced and B: has an English menu so you can actually tell what you are eating.
So for the most part I have had to settle for the well established paths of American Takeaway restaurants (I'm not the only one judging by the amount of white people I saw queuing at the McDonalds in Kyoto station).
It's a little frustrating that most shops in Japan have English names and are sign-written as such. Some also have English information on menus and billboards. This is great. What is not so great is that staff can neither read nor understand the English so it makes it a little null and void as you end up just pointing to the picture.
I'd probably be a little more adventurous if I was traveling with someone as you can then bounce of 1 another to get to the desired result.
Price is certainly a deterrent. To give you some idea of some of the costs, especially with food, I was given a tourist map of Kyoto by the hotel which had a number of different eating houses on it. Many of the restaurants average dinner charge is 5000 yen. Converted into NZ$ that is around $100. Ouch! No thanks. As it is an average burger combo costs around $13. I was prepared for Japan being expensive... Just perhaps not that expensive.
Because of cost to date I have virtually done no souvenir shopping. Most of the funds have gone on food, drink and Taxi fares and that quickly sucks up your money. My budget is around $130 a day and it doesn't go far.
However it isn't detracting from the holiday as I had totally expected this. Being in Japan is an experience that is so worth the expense. Hong Kong was always intended to be my shopping splurge.... not that I have room in my bags for anything further, but I will cross that bridge.
Anyway, I need to go in search of sustainance. Hopefully I can do a little better than American Fast food this time.
Sayonarra
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