The Bullet Train

Breakfast today consisted of fresh melon buns from the bakery in the hotel. According to what I learned, they are basically a sweet bun (very popular in Japan) wrapped in cookie dough. Yeah, that's what we had for breakfast. Maybe our favorite donut places in Durham, Monuts and Rise, can work on this for our return.

After this breakfast of champions, we headed to Tokyo Station where we figured out how to get our reserved tickets for the Shinkansen (the infamous bullet train) to Kyoto. The trains are known for on-time-to-the-second departures, so we didn't want to screw this up. The girls, having taken fashion cues from the people-watching in Shibuya, just stood around looking cute.

I think we may have oversold the Shinkansen to the girls. They may have thought it was going to be a rocket ship. John and I both appreciated the quiet, the carts that didn't bump your elbows, the comfortable seats, and the ample leg room.

I have no commentary about this next picture except to say, Zoe being Zoe.

I would like to take a quick detour here to discuss Pocari Sweat. Let's start with the fact that it is the worst name ever for a drink. That aside, it is actually refreshing. It's a sports drink akin to Gatorade, but with a much milder and less sweet taste.

But the best thing about Pocari Sweat is this commercial from 1986, featuring Cindy Crawford. (Thanks to my friend Meredith for sharing such high quality advertising information with me.)

Rockin' the Durm tee in Japan

Part of the reason that the girls weren't impressed with the train is because they are too young to be impressed by it. The other reason is that the ride is incredibly smooth and you don't really feel the speed. The bullet trains can reach 200 mph, though I don't know if our Tokyo-Kyoto train reached this max speed. John took some video of the beautiful countryside on our trip.

We arrived at Kyoto Station with too much time to head straight for dinner, but not enough time to do anything terribly significant. So we went to the most crowded playground we could find. That is Maddox, of course, climbing on top of the bridge.

Although our kids were the only Westerners at the playground, it was so packed it was hard to figure out where they were. It was like Where's Waldo, but with lots of noise.

The roller slide was a big hit with Maddox. She rarely does things the way they are intended to be done, but that's usually a good thing.

We ate at an Italian place (I am laughing thinking about how we managed to eat at every non-Japanese place during our entire time in Japan) in Kyoto Station. The Japanese are not known for their fine Italian cuisine, but it served its purpose. Our hotel was within a few blocks of Kyoto Station so it was easy to take advantage of the markets, stores, and restaurants there.

Even in the few hours we were in Kyoto before going to bed, it was clear that it was a completely different vibe than Tokyo. There was very little Western influence that we saw, other than in Kyoto Station. Kyoto represents the old world beauty and culture of Japan; it looks like the Japan that one might imagine from a history class. At one point it had been on the list of possible targets for the atomic bomb, but its heritage and natural beauty trumped its strategic value. For John and me, we were glad to be in a place where there was a display of foliage -- nothing like some turning leaves to make us feel at home.