Bullet train to Kyoto
Tuesday morning: we get up early, finish packing our stuff, and check out of the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. We’re at the station about an hour before our Shinkansen train leaves for Kyoto, so we just try to kill some time. While there, we both pick up an ekiben (bentou sold at a train station) for the train ride, which is close to 3 hours long. Chuck’s planning to do some studying on the train, and I’m planning on listening to my iPod or re-reading the copy of Timequake I brought along.
I have to say, riding the Shinkansen is a very pleasant experience. It’s very comfortable and the ride is smooth (for the most part), and if you’re sitting by the window you can get a good look at what the Japanese landscape looks like outside of the major cities. Yeah, it’s pretty expensive to ride one, but at least if you’re a tourist, it’s covered by the JR Rail Pass. In any case, I ended up getting no reading done and instead fell asleep for most of the trip.
We arrived in Kyoto Station around 2:00, and we took an unnecessary subway trip from there to Gojo Station (one stop away on the Karasuma Line) because we thought it would be much closer to the inn we were staying in, the Chita Guest Inn. But it’s really not much closer, so consider that wasted time and money. Anyway, we eventually found the place, which wasn’t hard since the description said it’s right across from the Higashi Honganji, and that temple’s hard to miss as long as you’re on the right street.
As for the place, I really liked it. It’s a Japanese style inn, and it’s really clean and cozy, with perhaps the only problem being the somewhat steep stairs leading to the second floor and to the roof. The place has a common bathroom facility and a common shower, but I didn’t mind that. The rooms are spacious enough and are well-kept, and the rooms come with small TVs. Sleeping on a futon is pretty comfortable (though of course I still prefer a regular bed). In the current weather, the room had a tendency to get very warm, but there’s also an air conditioning unit installed so it wasn’t much of a problem.
The inn is managed by just a single woman, but she does an amazing job of keeping the place clean. She was really friendly, and we had fun chatting with her while we were there. She didn’t speak much English (and the website says so), but it still seemed the vast majority of guests who stayed there spoke very little Japanese beyond the bare basics. So I think it was also a welcome change for her that Chuck speaks a lot of Japanese, and I could at least understand some of what she was saying.
Anyway, we settled in and decided to do some laundry while finalizing our plans for the next few days. While our clothes were in the washer, we looked through some tourism magazines and maps in the common room (which has a big screen TV!). There was a lot we wanted to do, and trying to pack it all in within a few days was going to be difficult.