First Day in Kyoto, Japan

There is is

This morning we took the 3-hour bullet train (shinkansen) ride to Kyoto, Japan. The ride was nice and smooth, and fun to see the cities outside Tokyo. Lots of building but also some open land and small lots of vegetable gardens or rice paddies.

Jeff on the bullet trainDiane on the Bullet Train

Here is Jeff and I on the train. The seats had 3 and 2 on each side like an airplane, and was about 12 cars long. They had separate “smoking cars” which Jeff indulged in.

Kyoto

Once we arrived a the train station we were all starving! But decided to find our hotel first and drop off our bags before figuring out a place to eat. The Kyoto Train station is HUGE – it has an entire shopping mall within it, and more… We got lost for a while and after some back and forth we decided to go to a nice italian restaurant on the top floor of a major department store (yes still in the train station). This photo is of Kyoto tower which you can see from the restaurant window.

Pear TartPumpkin Dessert... i think?

I forgot what the desserts where i think mine was a pear tart thing, and this one could be pumpkin?

Italian Restuarant

Here is the Segawa clan in their homeland! Hahah.

New Miyako HotelNew Miyako Hotel

We checked into our hotel room, and MY MY what a difference compared to our last hotel! This one was a tiny bit smaller, but the interior was far superior! Feel very good staying here, and also right across the street from the train station so very convienient.

Foxtail!

Once we settled into the room Jeff and I decided to spend some alone time and found a temple close by that we could walk to. We noticed a lot of the girls in Japan had little “fox tails” on their purses and bags. I couldn’t resist taking a photo… they are also a big fan of leggings and floral prints (YUCK!) It was fun to watch. The walk there was not too interesting besides that though we noticed the city is VERY clean, and the little houses and shops that go right up the sidewalk are so tiny and cute.

21st of the Month Fair

Once on the temple grounds, we shopped around at the fair they where having which happened to only take place one day a month, so we were lucky to be there that day. We bought a few homemade buttons and placemats. I saw a couple of food booths i wanted to try with yummy looking desserts but we had just ate so we didnt buy any =(

Bridge at TempleFoot Bridge

Here is one side of the bridge, and then the other… it was leading to the temple grounds.

Stone Lantern

I love how this photo turned out of a stone lantern. It looks old huh?

Kyoto - Toji Temple / Pagoda

Actually i a remembering now it was a pagoda not a temple! I think it was built in 1960 sometime but the “original” was built like in 700 but it kept burning down and they kept rebuilding it!

There where few other buildings that housed some pretty impressive buddha statues. Again no photos allowed! We also noticed they kept buckets of water outside all the buildings, i think it was mandated by fire code but Jeff and I thought it was funny because whats one little pail of water gonna do to a fire? I suppose… something is better than nothing.

Toji Temple

Here is an artsy shot of the pagoda for your viewing pleasure.

UFO Catcher

After visiting the pagoda i convinced Jeff to go to the Eon mall with me that was right across the street from out hotel. We walked around but i didnt see any stores too particularly interesting. On the very top level they had an arcade, with lots of UFO machines (the stuffed animal machines with the little grabbers). AND! We found the print club machines (on my list of “to do” in Japan)!!!

Photo Booth / Print ClubPhoto Booth / Print Club

Print club is like a photo booth on steroids. The photo booths can fit like 4+ people, and there are all kinds of backdrops you can choose and you can even write things all over the photos before they get printed. IT WAS SO COOL! Jeff and I had lots of fun with the whole process, and it was especially confusing since we didnt know how to read or understand the instructions in Japanese! We laughed pretty hard about it because there was always a timer counting down, and we panicked not knowing what was happening next…

Print Club Photos

So here is how the photos came out. Jeff hates the way the computer made his eyes “all girly” – i think they do that to make the girls look pretty but yes i agree it looks weird on a guy! I wanted to do another one after this but couldn’t get Jeff to agree.. bummer it was so much fun.

For dinner we went to the last floor of the department store where they have lots of food vendors. I ate some noodles, but i can’t remember what Jeff ate? Then we slept real early cuz we are still jet lagged! Japan is 16 hours different from Pacific Coast time so quite a difference.


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