Up relatively early so we could check out of the hotel, get one of the bags checked into the Takkyubin service and get across to Tokyo Station to catch the Shinkansen to Kyoto. As we only had 4 days booked in Kyoto we wanted to get there as early as possible. Checkout no problem and bag booked in quickly and efficiently (helps to do the paperwork the night before as that does take a while!) And off to Tokyo Eki we went.

Almost as soon as we got on the train we were glad to have got rid of the larger bag. There's not a lot of space to put a big bag in the carriages and with it being quite busy we were taking up a lot of room even with one.

Got to Tokyo Eki eventually and started looking for the Shinkansen tracks (they run on a different set of rails to the normal trains so they are either in a separate station or at least a separate part of the station). Found that no problems as it's very well signposted. Then just needed to sort the tickets. 

For the record, if you have a valid JR Pass you don't need to book a ticket for the Shinkansen or, as far as I can see, any train on the JR Network. You just go to the gate at the side of the barriers and show your pass to the member of staff. Again, hindsight is a wonderful thing. 

Leaving Tracey in charge of the suitcase in the middle of the busy concourse off I toddled to find the Shinkansen desk to book the ticket I thought we needed. That bit is not well signposted to be frank, so it involved moderate to heavy chuntering/swearing and then asking at the information desk. And then a ten day hike across the concourse again to find the correct desk.

Once I found it though the lady was incredibly helpful (she’s the one standing in the middle behind the desk in the main photo). I did my best to do the whole thing in Japanese, with a couple of small cop-outs into English. If you do book with the JR Pass you get a reserved seat free and you can chose the side to sit too (well, if it’s not busy!) Seats duly booked schlepped back to try to find Tracey who insisted she had been worried about me as I’d been gone so long. I’m fairly convinced it was more because she was on her own in the middle of an incredibly busy station but nice to know she worries about me eh? Probably.

Since you can only ride the Hikari or Kodoma (slightly slower Shinkansen that stop more often) and not the Nozomi (the fastest ones) and there are far more of the Nozomi we had a bit of time to kill so we went to buy ekiben (packed lunches bought on train stations) for the journey. Forget everything you think you might know about train station meals – there was none of your soggy/stale sandwich nonsense. Everything was fresh and really well presented so we chose a couple almost at random and grabbed a selection of drinks too (not sake – too early, I’m not a total lush!). If British rail food was of this standard they’d actually have queues for it.

Slight hiccough at the automatic barrier when I tried to use the ticket I’d been given. Tracey got through but mine didn’t work. Couple of seconds of panic before the staff came over to help. Turns out that I was trying to use the reserved seat ticket which doesn’t work in the barrier and anyway we should have just shown our JR Passes to them at the gate. Dammit. Muchすみませんでした and we were through. Lesson learnt. Well, about showing your passes. I still hadn’t really sussed that you didn’t need a ticket at all, just the passes. Ah well.

Have to say, incredibly impressed with the Shinkansen. Well, the entire Japanese train/tube system really. The trains turn up dead on time, the barriers open, the doors open and everyone alights/embarks. Just before the scheduled departure there’s a load of chimes, the barriers slide shut, the doors shut and you get off dead on time. It’s all very impressive and inside the Shinkansen you might well be aboard an aircraft. Spotlessly clean and with seats arranged two and three either side of the aisle (you can actually swivel the bank of seats round so a larger group can all face each other!) you get a tray table and somewhere to charge your phone. Plenty of space to store sensible sized suitcases in the racks above your head too, despite what I’d read. However this train wasn’t busy – see the difference when we go to Hiroshima!

It’s also really quiet as people keep their voices down and actively leave the carriage to talk on the phone. All very civilised compared to the racket on UK trains (from the trains and the passengers). Spent a very relaxing enjoyable few hours watching the scenery of Japan pass by the window at high speed (God knows what the Nozomi is like if this was one of the slower trains!) while eating genuinely lovely food and chatting.

I know! Like proper adults!

Rocked up in Kyoto early afternoon (unsurprisingly, on time) and a few minutes later were standing outside Kyoto Eki trying to get our bearings in order to find the Ryokan. Out came Google Maps. See if you can guess what happened next? Go on – you’ll never guess (unless you’ve read any of the previous entries).

Yep, off we went in completely the wrong direction and walked for bloody ages in the baking sun in a massive loop just to end up back where we started. Moderate to really quite heavy cursing. Does make you wonder if the designers of either the app or the Samsung phone (still not really sure which is the main culprit) have ever actually used them in the real world. Having said that we did see our first inu-yarai (curved bamboo structures sitting against house walls designed originally to stop dogs peeing on the houses!) which I was unnecessarily excited about having seen them on a Rachel and Jun video! I know – simple things eh?

Eventually, despite a couple of slight detours down the wrong back street and having walked past the place once because we are stupid, we arrived at the fantastic Kyomachiya Ryokan Sakura Honganji. I really wanted to book into a ryokan (Japanese style hotel) at least once on the trip as a) it’s one of the first words you learn and b) the experience was supposed to be quite different from a standard western style hotel, even a Japanese western style hotel. And it is. And it’s better.

We were met by the wonderful Szymon who gave us some tea while he checked us in then explained a few of the differences between their ryokan and a hotel. A lot of those are to do with the tatami mat room and the arrangements for sleeping on futons. Basically change into slippers, don’t drag your case onto the tatami, and if you spill anything get help quick. When you want to go to bed, get the futons out of the cupboard and make your bed. They like to treat you as if you were a member of the family and it really shows. We felt properly Japanese, especially after putting on the yukata (lightweight kimono) and sliding the shoji doors shut. Obviously there are concessions to modern life like a TV and aircon (essential!) but images from Shōgun of Blackthorne waking up for the first time in a Japanese room kept running around my head. I have to admit to grinning like a Cheshire Cat and the look on Tracey’s face too said “very very very happy bunny”. We’d been in Japan a week but this felt like we were in JAPAN. That might come across as cliché or corny but it’s true nonetheless. 

Once we’d calmed down a bit we changed back out of our yukata, freshened up and then went out to see what Kyoto had to offer.

Since it’s one of the big tourist draws in the area and we were only a two minute walk away the first port of call was Nishihongan-ji (or Hongwan-ji depending on what you look at and who you ask) itself. It’s a one of two massive temples in its own substantial grounds and well worth a visit. If it’s not just about to close. Which it was. Zero points for timing there Rowe! We had had a bit of a tour round the grounds already though and the nice guard did let us into the main hall for a few minutes. It was seriously impressive, both in decoration and just sheer scale. After that we, along with all the other stragglers, were politely requested to leave so they could lock up. Fair enough then.

Then spent a good long while touring around the centre of Kyoto primarily looking for somewhere to get Kyoto okonomiyaki (this isn’t the last occasion that we spent ages trying to find a decent okonomiyaki restaurant on this trip by the way, some times more successful than others!).

Eventually after a lot of walking down back streets and talking ourselves out of going in to several restaurants (especially those with “touts” outside) we ended up in a yakitori bar. We should really have taken more pictures of this but we were initially too busy trying to work out what to have then got chatting to a couple of young girls who were seemed like regulars and were blatantly chatting up the young guys working there. We did end up with some really nice “various stuff on skewers” and other bits and pieces, including some fantastic tamagoyaki. Nagaimo chips especially were one of the girls’ recommendations and they were bloody good! Nice place but it was a bit pricey for what we had and did feel a bit like a tourist trap. Never mind – good food and some Japanese conversation can’t be too bad. Oh, and the beer and sake were excellent :-)

Talking of sake we found a brilliant drinks shop on the way back the ryokan. I was actually looking for Black Samurai sake which we’d had in London as part of a sake tasting workshop and it was the best I’d ever had (up until now anyway). The place was run by a lovely helpful guy on whom I tried my best (i.e. pretty terrible) Japanese. He didn’t have Black Samurai so I asked for a Junmai Yamahai sake (because that’s what Black Samurai is and anyway I’m a pretentious git who was trying to come over as knowing what he was on about. Do I? Nope – not really). He didn’t have any but he did have several Nigori sakes which always go down well so we bought a bottle. He asked where we were from and we had a bit of a laugh about Scotland and bagpipes. Genuinely nice guy.   

Dropped into a Lawson’s combini on the way back and got some snacks for later. Also realised that the cash supply was getting a bit low so we gave the cash machine a go. Prior research did stack the odds against a machine in anything but a 7-11 or the Post Office actually letting us withdraw cash but we thought it was worth a try. First attempt seemed to go ok but asking for 30000 Yen (you have to get multiples of 10000 out) got the transaction declined. Bit of a worrying few minutes until we realised that that would probably be over our daily withdrawal limit. Sure enough, 20000 worked fine. The multiples of 10000 yen did seem to be consistent in most machines we used on the trip. The amount isn’t an issue (it’s about £75 at time of writing) but you do seem to only get it in 10000 Yen notes which does put all your eggs in a few large baskets. Having said that, Japan is generally very safe and we never had an issue paying for even fairly small items with a 10000 Yen note. Can’t see UK cashiers being so keen to take £50 notes for small items! Also, we tried a few Lawson machines later in the trip and they didn’t always work but the ones in 7-11 always did.

Back to the lovely ryokan to get out the futon as Szymon had shown us (well alright, I had a shower and Tracey got them out!). Then, sitting in our yukata we drank our sake and chilled out for a bit before settling down for the night on the tatami.

Still grinning.