On this day we left Tokyo for Kyoto. Here are some highlights, followed by the photos I posted to Instagram that day:
After packing up our stuff, we headed over to Tokyo Station. We bought tickets on the shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto, and we left ourselves plenty of time to buy some tasty bento boxes and snacks so we could have both breakfast and lunch on the train.
After we disembarked in Kyoto, Jason realized he had left a small bag of clothes on the train, so we went to the JR Train information office. They had a sign saying “Lost & Found (shinkansen)” so I’m guessing this sort of thing happens a lot. We were hoping that, since they knew exactly which train we were on, and where we were sitting, it would be possible to retrieve it. The guy who was helping us wrote some things down and told us to come back in 50 minutes (we think that’s what he said). We walked around and did some shopping while we waited. When we came back he told us the bag was found (I think), and that the best thing to do is take a train to some office 3 hours away to go pick up the bag. We didn’t believe that, and we took a phone number to call the office that (probably) has the bag. Finally, we set off to find the place where we’re staying.
We decided to walk there, and Google maps put us on a pretty odd route – through a baseball field, along an aquarium where some kind of live show was taking place in an open air performance space, down some tiny streets – but eventually we got to the place where we would be staying for the next few day: Kinse Inn. This place is gorgeous, and I’m sure either Jason or I will write a whole post about it sometime soon.
Oh yeah, and after showing us around, our hosts called the train office to talk to someone about Jason’s lost bag. They were able to arrange to have it delivered here on Monday. Yay!
After settling in a bit, we walked around the neighborhood. We tried to go to a conveyor belt sushi place, but it turns out to be a pretty popular place, especially on a Saturday night. So we went to Mos Burger instead. This is a fast food place that we first encountered in Sweden – turns out it’s actually Japanese in origin! I had a burger with avocado and chili on it, which struck me as very amusing.
Back at Kinse Inn – a 200 year old building, which has a cafe on the first floor and the entire second floor is ours, all tatami mats and low tables and futons on the floor – we relaxed and had an early night. It was raining, and the sound of the rain falling on the roof made it even more atmospheric and relaxing.
Walking tally: Fitbit says I walked 15k steps today, which is about 6.5 miles. That’s a total of almost 68 miles of walking for the trip so far.
And here are the photos I posted to Instagram on this day:
And there are a lot more photos from this day in this set on flickr (with photos from June 5th also).
Lovsky Adventures 