Monday, July 20, 2015

Travelling in Japan - Day 2 (part 1)

After a somewhat restful/restless night, I woke up on my day 2 in Japan with a mild recovery from the previous day's 13hr flight (to a location 12 time zones out of sync with my own).  Our party all had to get up and get out early, since our JR bullet train ride from Tokyo to Kyoto was early morning.

The ride is about two hours on the bullet train.  Our JR train commonly maintained speeds between 150 to 160 mph.  We watched the city, suburbs, countryside, suburbs and city wiz by.  Of note, there were an unusual number of Ferris Wheels visible from the train, along with a rather high number of netted driving ranges.

Once in Kyoto, we dropped our bags off at our hotel, then went exploring on foot.  We found a good place along the river for lunch.




I had the Chicken Salad.  This dish was a 'salad' in name only.  The chicken was great, and the lettuce was really unnecessary.  The noodles where good too.  I was suprized that I liked the tofu skins that came with the appetizer.

The view we had while dining was of the river, but the river isn't much of a view.


There were several types of birds that were up to their bird-antics nearby the river, which did serve as mild entertainment while we enjoyed our lunch.  Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to properly check-in and prepare for the afternoon exploration around town.

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