Three Adventures on Day Three

Leaving Kyoto for Takayama on Day Three of our Japan trip, we eventually embarked on the first of the day’s new adventures: riding the Shinkansen “Bullet Train”.  Doing so involved taking the subway to Kyoto Station, traipsing to the correct side of the station, arranging assigned seats (for all three segments of our day’s journey), making our way to the correct spot on the platform, boarding the train with all our luggage within the two minutes allotted, and settling in for the initial one hour trip.

Actually the first three of these tasks were so efficiently completed that we had time to spare before heading through the ticket gate.  Folks wandered off, retrieving yen from Seven Eleven ATMs; exploring nearby shops, coffee houses and restaurants in the station concourse, or just people watching.  

Sarah had earlier suggested a word game — “You know you are in Japan when ...” — and, while we we waiting and watching, almost immediately a example cropped up:  “You know you are in Japan when you see a sumo wrestler shopping at a convenience store at the railroad station”.


The second adventure saw us exploring Himeji castle, Japan’s most famous, in Himeji, our initial stop of the day.  First of all, however, we had to cram our bags into nine small station lockers for safekeeping!  But at least there were nine available!
Although proving too crowded to allow time to climb the castle keep itself, we nonetheless were able to explore the grounds, enjoy the cherry blossoms and the bright, sunny weather, making it a worthwhile brief stop on our journey.

Our final destination, the mountain town of Takayama, deep in the Japan Alps, meant another four hours on the train and involved a transfer from the Shinkansen to a Scenic Limited Express at Nagoya.  

This provided the context for the day’s third new big adventure, dining on ekibento, a box lunch picked up at Himeji station designed for eating on the train - considerably less costly than McDonalds and ever so much more tasty!




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