Thunderbirds are go!

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We catch the Thunderbird Shinkansen to Kyoto today. 260 kms in just over 2 hours. These trains are awesome!

We saw the sights we wanted to see and then some, yet it feels like we leave Kanazawa too soon. Jules and Deaks went for a run along the Sai River before breakfast. It runs from the snow capped Mt Okura to the Sea of Japan. It is drizzling rain today, but they proudly kept up the tradition of running in foreign lands.

The veiw from our 4th story airbnb isn't as dramatic as Tokyo but has it's own appeal. The rain overnight has left the dark shingles shining and the native trees look like bonsai among the power lines and antennae. The hum of the traffic pauses, pierced by the chirp...chirp chirp of the pedestrian walk signal. Locals ride passed on their bikes in the light rain. They don't wear helmets and ride on the footpath when they like. A Geisha walking past now would be perfect!

The rain clears for our trek to the train station. I know there is a bus that goes there from near our apartment, but I don't know how to get tickets or if you can pay the driver. It's easier and probably more economical for the 4 of us to find a taxi and to use our our railpasses to explain our destination. We do, it works and it's a $10 taxi fair delivering us to the train station direct.

The Thunderbird leaves every half hour. We decide to wait for the 11.24 and to not add time pressure to the interpretation and translation pressure. We reserve our seats and Jules and the kids have a look around while I mind the luggage. Milla is wearing bright orange leggings and a bright orange jacket - she matches our luggage perfectly and I notice many of the locals appreciate her cuteness.

These train stations are amazing places and seem to act as a hub for the city. There are department stores, restaraunts, supermarkets and of course the trains. Jules and Deaks find a German Bakery and we load up on sour doughs, brioche, muffins and choc chip scones. Not very Japanese, but easy and delicious!
We find Car 8 on platform 2 with just minutes to spare. It seems more densely populated between Kanazawa and Kyoto than it was between Toyama and Kanazawa. The train line is bordered by rice paddies and vegetable plots. Beyond them are factories surrounded by adjoining blocks of near identical housing. It appears that the towns are built around the factories and you get the feeling that the residence families work for the companies that own the factory. Komatsu is both a town and a company name.
Close to the train stations are apartment blocks, schools and shops. Fukui - I'm not game to pronounce that one out loud - is a bigger town and has more of a city around the station.

The housing is indistinguishable and they all conform to a common style. Some however, have these brilliant Japanese gardens in their small yards. I suppose they just call them gardens. All the houses are neat and well presented. They look small, smart and simple. Low grey clouds shroud the dark green mountains in the middle distance. Bright green rice paddies are broken up by the white of the cherry blossoms and the yellow of a wattle like shrub. The houses are black roofed and painted brown, cream or grey. Kids play soccer on an artificial turf pitch surrounded by pink cherry blossoms in full bloom. It is special when these flowers bloom. Just weeks ago these trees would have been bare, dark brown twigs in the depths of winter. The arrival of the blossoms signals a welcome change of season.

Passing through Imajo and it's getting less industrial and more rural. The houses look the same but are fewer and the mountains are closing in around us. Pine trees replace the rice paddies and the tunnels become more frequent and longer. One tunnel was almost 10 minutes long at 200km/hour. Which I think means it was about 30 kms long! A 60-70 metre high rail bridge crosses overhead and powerlines criss-cross the valleys via massive towers. The infrastructure in this country is insane. I suppose the population density helps with that. I can't imagine this standard of infrastructure hundreds of kms west of Australia's east coast capitals. It's rural south west of the mountains and still there's very little wasted land.

Rice fields hug the curves of the roads and butt up against the housing blocks. Twenty minutes out from Kyoto and the housing density begins to increase and factories, schools and apartment blocks rise up around the tracks. We pass a massive lake, big enough to convince you it's an ocean. One last tunnel and we are in Kyoto.

We disembark quickly, this train is bound for Osaka and these drivers would risk a few slow moving tourist to ensure they arrive second perfect. Kyoto seems much busier than I remember. We escape the train station and Deaks takes the tablet with the downloaded map and guides us to our apartment like a pro.

We unpack and chill for a bit before heading just down the road to Higashihonganji Temple. And it's incredible. Claims to be the biggest timber structure in the world and it's big! Big poles, big beams, big floor boards - it's huge and the dark timber is beautiful and even smells good. It's 40 metres tall and about 70 metres long and you can't reach around the main poles. It was reconstructed in 1895 and they used rope made from the hair of the believers to drag the timber down from the mountains. This "hair rope" is a thick as my arms and a more than a little bit gross.

We're taking Cherry Blossoms for granted by now, but they do still occasionally stop us in our tracks. The low teen temps draw us towards the warmth of the nearby Yodobashi shopping centre. This place is electronics heaven and some of the cameras really get my zoom zooming! I'm dragged away from the rows and rows of cameras and we replace the kids broken headphones. Deaks tries to convince us that he can't get ipod nanos in Aust and he needs to get one while we are here and Milla just wants everything she touches. Time to get out of her before we blow our budget in one shopping spree.

The basement of this department store houses the Global Planet supermarket - New Style Supermarket! So much cool and crazy food in these markets and we pick up some chicken curries, ramen and sushimi for a "home cooked" meal. There are so many diferrent beers in the supermarket fridge and Kyoto has been hit hard by the craft beer craze. I find myself discussing Kyoto craft beers with a hipster from Australia with a waxed and twisted moustache. His recommendations were spot on! Dinner was a hit and it's good for the kids to have an easy night. They wind down watching the tablets with their new headphones. Jules figures out how to work the washing machine and I watch Japan beat Costa Rica in women's football. Our home for the next fews days is feeling just like...home.

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