Day 5 - Riding the Shinkansen to Kyoto!

This part of our trip is probably my most favorite part. On this day, we woke up, checked out of our Ryokan and made our way to the town of Odawara.

From Odawara, we rode the Shinkansen, commonly known as the Bullet Train, from Odawara to Kyoto. By car, it's about a 5 hour car drive to Kyoto from Odawara. However, on the bullet train - it was only two hours.

We began our morning by taking the Hakone Tozan line to Odawara. As Odawara was a bigger station, we ate breakfast there. Nothing fancy, just some pastries and coffee we found. We purchased our tickets for the Shinkansen and made our way to the platform.

The Shinkansen!

The Shinkansen travels at about 155 miles per hour. While not as fast as flying, it is very fast on land, and very efficient. The trains were never late, and always clean. As I mentioned in a previous post (at least I think I did), people on trains in Japan are very quiet. It's considered very rude to speak on the trains. Almost like libraries, you must be quiet and respectful. That's what this ride even more awesome - you could enjoy the scenery in peace and quiet. You can see in the video below just how fast it is!

The Shinkansen also had a snack cart which was tasty. They had coffee, bento boxes, and other snacks. We got some pockey (the sticks with chocolate - they sell them in the US too) and finally made it to Kyoto Station.

Kyoto is such a different city than Tokyo. It used to be the capital of Japan, and is one of the oldest cities on earth. It is a modern city, yet it is still a city dedicated to its past. We visited many shrines and many temples while in Kyoto. There are over 2,000 shrines and temples but we made it to a few.

Kyoto Station

Kyoto Station - so huge!

Kyoto Tower, just outside of Kyoto

We were also fortunate to be in Kyoto during the time of the Gion festival. This is dedicated to the major shrines in Kyoto, where it serves almost like a homecoming for the deities housed in these shrines.

One downside to Kyoto - it was very hot! After coming from the cooler mountain area, Kyoto sits in a basin surrounded by mountains. It was very beautiful but it was so hot and muggy. After arriving in Kyoto station, we saw it was only a 15 minute walk to our Airbnb. We decided to walk. However, the heat made it very unbearable. I didn't capture any pictures of us walking, cause we were carrying all of our luggage.

Also, the Japanese are very concerned about the environment and pride themselves in conserving scarce resources - after all, they are an island nation. Thus, most places turn off the AC when you're not there. So our Airbnb was very hot when we arrived, and we had to wait a bit for it to cool down. Which was no issue- it gave us time to gather our bearings and decide where to go.

the view from our Airbnb - a true Japanese Experience

So we went walking to the Nishiki- the shopping district of Kyoto. It's hard to describe this area, it's like a giant mall, but on city streets, and is full of shops and restaurants. It was really cool.

The awesome starbucks barista made a great smoothie for Josh

This is a Lush Store

The "inside" of Nishiki - but it's a street?

We ate dinner at a Japanese bbq restaurant. It is neat because you cook your own food! They bring out the meat, and you have an open fire grill in the middle. They bring very long chopsticks which are used only for cooking. You get some rice, and some spices to season up your meat, and you eat and enjoy.

After dinner we started walking along the river. They were several bars and shops along here, that are hundreds of years old. We walked into one bar because it said "English Menu and Beers" so we walked into Beer Bar Miyama 162.

How it looks going down the street

It was like walking into home. Many foreigners were here. The hosts Nao and Mami were so awesome. Folks from all over the globe stopped in for a beer. Particularly, British and Australian visitors. The beer was all local, and it was so good!

We had a great time, but boy were we tired from all of the walking we did. This was a short day due to the travel, but we had an exciting time the next day - and a return visit to Beer Bar Miyama 162.

Snapchat of the day:

Day 4 - Riding up the Volcano of Hakone!

So where we last left off, we had taken a nice sleep at our Ryokan (the Japanese style hotel) and we woke up early ready to explore the town. The video below shows a bit of how peaceful and tranquil it was. We looked around and said "Ohio Gozimas" which means "Good Morning"

Unfortunately, we started walking at six in the morning and nothing was open until nine. So we walked around the neighborhood and bumped into a Lawson - which is a Japanese convenience  store. We were able to buy a very tasty breakfast, eat some Japanese pastries, and had some famous Japanese Iced Coffee. On hot summer days, the iced coffee was a great way to keep cool and still get your caffeine fix. 

Here is how the Gora Station looked like

This is the Hokone Cable Car

Following, we made our up to the Hakone Cable Car. This train was literally dragged up the mountain by a very strong cable. Once you got to the top of the mountain, you had some awesome views of the mountains and the country side. 

View from the top 

From there, we took the Hokone Ropeway - which is a gondola suspended over the mountain - to the top of the Volcano where Lake Ashi is. The ropeway was pretty awesome, you had an awesome view of the mountains, the forestry. We even rode over the sulfur mines - which they gave you a cloth to help avoid smelling the nasty smell. 

We took the Ropeway all the to the end, by Lake Ashi. From there, we took a bus to a little town called Hakoneen. (The name reminded me so much of Halloween). We were so excited cause we found a brochure in our Ryokan about Hakoneen and it has an aquarium, shopping center, and restaurants. 

Lake Ashi 

Lake Ashi

When we arrived, we felt the brochure may have oversold the park. The aquarium was a bit run down - though the seals were adorable. The shopping was only souvenir stands (some of yall got souvenirs from there!). The food was good, but we knew we could find something better in town. 

Cute Seal

We went back on the bus, to catch the ropeway, we stopped by the sulfur mine to have a localized treat - black eggs. In Hakone, they boil these eggs in the sulfur water. The eggs then get a black shell around them. Local saying is that if you eat this egg, you add seven years to your life. Josh ate it, I did not. Josh actually ate two, so guess he's going to live 14 years longer than me!  

Hakone Black Eggs

Hello Kitty Says Hello

Josh Trying the egg

Josh says it tastes like a normal egg

Following our lunch, we went to the Hakone Open Air Museum. This is a museum with tons of sculptures laid out in the open. You stroll around the gardens admiring the beautiful artwork. They also had a Picasso exhibit inside, but photography was forbidden.  

A sample of the sculptures - I'll do a separate post on the museum

After we left the Open Air Musuem, we went to eat dinner at a famous Gyoza place. This is place is called Gyoza Center. Gyoza are little dumplings made with various ingredients. We had some with chicken, crab, beef, pork, veggies, so many different flavors and combinations. All were very good. 

Gyoza! 

Gyoza! 

We then started walking back to the Ryokan, when we noticed a bar had opened up. We sat there, had some local beer which was delicious. We relaxed for a bit before returning to the Ryokan for a final night of sleep. The next morning, we begin our adventure to the great city of Kyoto. 

Here is the snapchat of the day: