On Sunday morning, Maki, CJ, mom, dad and I traveled back to Tokyo from Tsukuba. Mom and dad had a lunch to attend, so Maki, CJ and I met the rest of the group at Shinagawa station to catch the 12:20pm shinkansen to to Kyoto.
Maki, CJ and I got to Shinagawa station early, so we had a chance to explore the station a little bit. Japanese subway and train stations are a wonder. There are clean bathrooms everywhere and the signage to get to the bathrooms is very good. Most importantly, there are food stores and tiny restaurants everywhere. I got hungry just looking at the signs for ramen, udon and tempura. Yum! We even found a hot soba food stand right on the platform. Maki says hot soba on a cold day is just the best! We settled on a couple of bento boxes of futomaki, tofu pockets (enari), chicken and rice.
Our Kyoto adventure began when we got on the shinkansen. Boy, you can set your clock by the train schedule. Our train arrived right at 12:20. Maki says trains typically make a 90-second stop, so we had no time to spare getting on the train. We had purchased reserved seats, which were roomy and comfortable. There are Japanese and Western toilets on the train, and the refreshment cart comes by every half hour. You can get beer, soda, bento, candy and other snacks from the refreshment cart.
We got to Kyoto in under two hours, then caught two cabs to the ryokan (more on that later). The shinkansen ride was sort of anti-climactic since it was, after all is said and done, just a train ride, but it was definitely speedy and smooth.
I think about how I prefer to take the train to New York, as opposed to flying. And I wonder if I would opt to visit more places in the US if the trains got me there faster and less expensively.
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