Taking the Shinkansen Back to Tokyo

After visiting Kurashiki, our bus made its way back to Okayama, where we had time to get washed up and get food for the train. There was a really nice food court at the station, including numerous food stalls and a grocery store. The food court was amazing, as usual. You could buy different kinds of sushi bentos, rice balls, rice bowls with different kinds of meat, fresh fruit, different kinds of sweets, and on and on. I wanted something simple so I went to the grocery store for some yogurt, fruit and a tuna roll.

We caught a 4:30 train back to Tokyo and arrived at Tokyo Station a little before 9:00pm. We then caught another train to Shinjuku to check into our next hotel, the Shinjuku Washington Hotel. After a quick cab ride from the station, we were able to check in to the Shinjuku hotel, take showers and go to bed. It was a long, tiring but really fun day.

Here's one of the little stores in the food court. Notice how everything is wrapped so nicely. These aer either boxes of items meant to be gifts or they are bento boxes wrapped beautifully.

Here's CJ in the hallway of the food court. It was pretty busy that day.

Here's CJ looking mighty satisfied over his big bowl of chirashi sushi.

Here's a close-up of CJ's dinner. Does this look amazing or what?

Here's MJ playing on the footrest. He had his own seat but he liked to play on the footrest, probably because it was just his size. We were also traveling at night, so there wasn't much to see outside. Note how he's carrying BA, his stuffed ladybug. BA went on this trip and was sticky and stinky by the time we got home.

Taking the Train to Nara

On Sunday morning, we were up bright and early because of the jetlag. I was up at 4am and the boys were up by 5:30am. By 6:30am, we all got dressed and Maki took both boys to the local 7-Eleven for some yogurt, miso soup, rice balls and a natto roll for himself.

It's amazing how integral 7-Elevent is to Japanese life. 7-Elevens are everywhere and you can buy the craziest stuff in them: sushi rolls, rice balls filled with salted plum or salmon, all kinds of hot and cold teas, minor electronics, yada, yada. Whenever we're in Japan, I have a rice ball from 7-Eleven pretty much every day. And on this trip, I discovered lightly sweetened plain yogurt from Meiji Dairy that is to die for. As the name implies, it's not too sweet, it's got a tartness that is usually processed out of American yogurt and it's wonderfully creamy. Yum.

 Here's CJ holding up a natto roll, which Maki adores. CJ and I think natto is stinky.

After packing everything up, we caught a cab to Tokyo station. We met Maki's parents at 10:30 so we would have an hour to buy food for the train and then get on the shinkanesen. We got a bunch of yummy food, including all kinds of nigiri sushi, enari and chirashi sushi. The train was scheduled to leave at 11:30 and it did. You can set your clock by the trains, which run so efficiently.

Here we all are on the platform, waiting for the shinkansen to go to Kyoto.

Here's Maki with his awesome sushi lunch.

We took the shinkansen to Kyoto and then transferred to a local train to Nara. I guess Nara is not served by the shinkansen. We love the trains in Japan, but especially the shinkansen. When we bought our rail passes in the US, we paid the extra $70 per person to green the green pass, which gives us reserved seats on the shinkanses, an additional luxury on what can be crowded trains.

It took 2 1/2 hours to get to Kyoto, we waited a half hour or so in Nara, then 45 minutes on the local train to get to Nara. By 3:30pm, we were walking out of the Nara station to our ryokan, or Japanese guesthouse.

Taking the Shinkansen to Kyoto

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.