Kyoto Japan

Monday, April 27

Today was the day we said goodbye to our home of the last 28 days, the Volendam, and especially its crew who worked so hard to make our voyage a pleasant and memorable one. We also met some really nice people who, hopefully, we'll meet again. Today also marked the start of our next adventure in Japan.

We disembarked the ship and waited a little while for a taxi to take us to Kobe station. We then negotiated buying a train ticket for the trip to Kyoto, and boarded our bullet train at 10:25am. The journey only took 30 minutes with just a brief stop in Osaka - it was a nice introduction to an amazing rail system in Japan.

The Shinkansen or Bullet train

Our hotel in Kyoto is only a short distance from the station, but we only had the Hachijo Exit as a clue as to which direction to go. We found an English speaking lady at Tourist Information who pointed out our hotel just across the road. The station is HUGE, and has many shops and restaurants, and because we were too early to check in we spent some time getting to know what was there. The food mall was incredible and we enjoyed a huge lunch for about A$10!

Our hotel. Note cute pink "people" shapes supporting the barricade around the roadworks

 

After checking in we decided to explore the other side of the station, as there were some temples and other items of interest shown on the maps we had picked up. We love exploring a new city on foot, as you see so much more than when driving around, and you can observe the people and soak up the ambience. We felt very safe walking around and, compared to China, there weren't that many people around!

The first thing we saw was the Kyoto Tower, which looks a bit old fashioned compared to the one in Shanghai, but it certainly stands out in this neighborhood. Nearby was the Higashi-Honganji temple complex, where there are some major renovations taking place. The gardens and trees around this complex looked magnificent in their spring colours and new foliage while, in a little canal running along one side of the complex, were some brightly coloured koi fish that are so typical of Japan.

Contrast of old, modern and beautiful

Koi in canal, and reflection of temple

Spring time in Kyoto

On our way back to the station we walked down a small neighborhood street and got a feel for how the people lived in this area. It was a mixture of old houses and modern apartments, but very classy. We saw some houses that still had the sliding wooden screens, which didn't look too secure to us, but we got the impression it was a safe area and it was very clean and well kept.

Noelle can pick the expensive real estate!

 

Next to the station is a top end department store and we got a bit lost ending up in their fresh food hall - what a shame! It was the classiest food hall we've ever been in although we didn't know what most of the foods were but they looked good and the presentation was out of this world, along with the prices! We finally found our way out and back into the station proper, which is massive - bigger than any station we've ever come across. We had to walk through the station's restaurant section and most of the restaurants have window displays of their meals made out of bright plastic. We must have been getting hungry as they even looked appetizing to us!

A small part of restaurant street

Sample of one restaurant's meals on display

There was also a water feature amongst all the restaurants and we were fascinated by the patterns the cascading water made while continually changing as it fell down from the ceiling.

 

We finally made it back to our hotel and, to complete a day of contrasts from ships to trains, the view from our window looks over the railway line, so we can keep an eye on the bullet trains as they leave Kyoto and head for Tokyo on a regular basis.

 

 

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