Disaster strikes! We got to Tokyo Station to take the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. Our tickets didn’t work. Close examination by security personnel at the station determined that our tickets were a day off. Apparently, when I told the gal at guest relations that I wanted tickets to leave on Thursday for Kyoto, she heard the thirtieth. We ended up at the ticket counter trying to rectify this. It took a long time. At one point, out came three train employees. I looked at Gary and we both thought, “Man, this isn’t good.” They had guest relations on the phone. The lady there said they would take care of it when we got back. Hurray! We bought new tickets, and we were on our way. We were only about 30 minutes later than when we were originally scheduled to be going. So that wasn’t bad – considering. (Note to self – don’t arrange tickets in foreign country while still jet lagged – you miss major errors!)
Keiko told me to look for Mount Fuji out the right side of the train after about one hour into the trip and after coming out of a tunnel. We no longer had right side of the train tickets, so Gary got up and went to a place between the cars to get a photo. He was up for almost an hour. Neither one of us ever saw it. Guess we’ll have to go back! ☺
When we got into Kyoto, we went immediately to the information counter to get a map and info on stuff to see and do. It was about 1 p.m. when we got there. One thing we had to do was get my eye glasses fixed. The screw came out of one side. So we found out about a place close by to go to get the glasses fixed. We also found out that we might make a tour of the Imperial Palace if we got there by 1:40 p.m. For only $2.10, I got my glasses fixed and cleaned. Boy, were they clean! We tried our best to get to the Palace in time for the tour, but didn’t make it. At 1:40 p.m. we were just arriving at our subway stop. It was still a little bit of a walk to get to the Palace. We got to the information office on the Palace grounds and arranged to attend the 10 a.m. tour for the next day. We left there to find a place to eat. We located a café just across the street from the Palace grounds. It was over a flower shop and a part of the flower shop. We had a good soup for lunch.
My plan always was to get a taxi to take us to our inn. We had the address and some directions, but I figured it would be easier to let the taxi take us. I hadn’t counted on Boy Scout Gary kicking in! Oh no! We had to find it ourselves. It took the rest of the afternoon, but we did find it. We spent the night at the Motonago Ryokan. I found it using a Japanese Guesthouse website (www.japaneseguesthouse.com). A ryokan is a Japanese style inn. The whole inn is done in traditional Japanese style. The rooms have tatami floors, rice paper doors, lovely gardens, low tables and cushions for seats. We were able to get a room with a private bathroom which had a heated toilet seat! Each guest has their own kimono clad hostess. Our hostess was a very nice young gal. There are only Japanese style bathing rooms. There was one for the men and one for the women. You could reserve one of the rooms for private bathing for 30 minutes. So we did that. You sit on a little stool and soap up and bath and rinse off and then you get in and soak in a very hot wooden bath tub. We had dinner at the ryokan. Our hostess served everything. You cook part of your meal yourself over individual little hibachi type things. You better like fish because the whole dinner was fish. It was very good. While we were in the bath, our hostess went into our bedroom and set up our beds. Our beds were futons on the floor covered with down comforters. Each of us had a little origami figure waiting for us on our pillow. I was worried about being cold, but the room was as toasty warm as we wanted it. The bedding was also toasty warm. I needn’t have worried at all!
Tags: Kyoto, ryokan, Shinkansen
