Category: Japan

After our massive cycle tour and visit to the Onsen in the hotel, next stop was dinner up at the station, which is only a few minutes walk from our hotel.

Love the Japanese stations, so many high quality and reasonably priced food options. I think this is about my 4th Japanese curry. I just can’t get enough of this stuff.

Will be coming up this way for dinner again soon but think I’ll have to try something other than curry. This was great value, curry and beer meal for ¥1,800

Dave managed to pick a non curry meal

After dinner I saw a new coffee in a can that was mentioned on one of the Japan Facebook groups I follow. It was nice

We Just completed a fantastic cycle tour of Kyoto with Thierry from cyclekyoto.net

Cycle tours are great as you will see so much more of a city than you will taking a walking tour or taking buses. This tour took us to the famous Gion area, the golden pavilion, the Inari shrine (with the thousands of Tori gates) as well as many other temples and shrines including :-

• Tatsumi Daimyojin Shrine
• Kitano Tenmangu Shrine
• Nijo-jo Castle
• Toji Homotsukan
• Hongangi

Went through many back streets and saw part of Kyoto I would never have even thought of visiting. The tour took about 5 hours, cost ¥12,000 and included lunch.

Dave and I were the only ones on the tour so it was basically a personalised tour for day. I’ve done bike tours in Florence, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, Krakow, Berlin and Copenhagen and this is up there with the best ones I’ve done.

Our guide Terry is French so it was interesting to hear what it was like for him to be living full time here in Kyoto.

The tour itself was mostly flat and on lots of cycle paths. Some road and traffic interaction along the way but didn’t feel unsafe anywhere. Some of the back streets of Kyoto are amazingly beautiful.

At the Golden Pavilion we had a group of school kids approach us to practice their English. They asked us what was our favourite Japanese food (Curry for me!) and our favourite Japanese cultural item (I chose the Shinkansen). Their teacher was quite happy they had found some tourists willing to participate.

It was a full on day and the Onsen back at the hotel was very welcoming and relaxing on our return.

Dinner last night we found a small restaurant just down from Gion. Had a meal there and then went for a night walk around the area. Tried a green tea pudding, covered with some green tea powder. Won’t be making that mistake again!

After dropping our bags off at the Hotel, we headed over to the Kyoto Railway Museum. An amazing display of trains, rail history, rail operations as well as Cafes and shops. We had a quick snack for lunch in a converted train carriage.

They have an original type 0 shinkansen which was the first high speed train to run in 1964. I probably could have spent all day in here.

The museum is one stop away from Kyoto’s main station at Umekōji-Kyōtonishi Station.

We were booked on the 10:08 bullet train direct from Odawara to Kyoto. We were planning to get the 8:15 train down to Odawara from Gora, but being so light of a morning here and being awake so early we got the 7:43. This particular train down the mountain was really colourful. Of course since we were leaving the rain had now stopped and we got some great views into the valleys

At Odawara we had over an hour to kill which meant we could sit down for coffee and breakfast. Got to sample a few more of the interesting Japanese baked goods. I’m yet to find one that is not delicious. Good thing I’m not here for months. Coffee was from the Hakone bakery, ok but nothing spectacular.

On the platform waiting for our Shinkansen we saw quite a few rush past on the way to Osaka or Tokyo. Odawara is not a main stop. Shinkansen literally translates as “new trunk line”. Bullet train was a nickname it gathered once it started operating and the first one looked like a bullet

Video of Shinkansen going through station

So why do they have such pointy front ends ? There are so many tunnels on the line and when travelling at 250kph+ causes serious amounts of air displacement and the long sharp nose helps displace air when entering tunnels. Apparently the sonic boom of air exiting tunnels near residential areas is an environmental issue here. Standing on a platform when one of these rushes past at 300kph is amazing.

Japan have seriously got their shit together on the whole operation of these trains. On every seat is a QR code that links to the operational website where you can check where your train is, if the line has delayed or where any train is on the track sections. I particularly like the little Mount Fuji icon so you can see what trains are passing Mount Fuji.

The ride to Kyoto took 2 hours, although it seems to take no time with all the interesting scenery.

Train leaving Gora

Every seat has a QR code you can scan which links to train running information