Shinjuku Station – David Beall Photography

(Let me apologize for the huge gap in time between my last post and now.)

Sunday morning was here (the final day of my trip) and I woke up finding it very difficult to get out of bed. The alarm went off at 9am, and I forced myself to stay awake by turning on the TV. After a half hour, I finally dragged myself out of bed, got dressed and did the last bit of packing.

Then it was time to eat some breakfast. I brewed some coffee, via the instant drip coffee provided in the room, and ate the last of the yogurt with Frosties. And as I sat eating, I could see a ceremony (or performance involving drums) taking place on the street far below. I wish I had known about it, I would have tried to get up earlier to see it. Oh well.

With breakfast eaten, it was time to call home but it was now 10:50am and I had to checkout by 11am. So instead, I took a few last pictures of the room, bid it farewell and hurried to the elevators.

I checked out, left my luggage with the bellhop and found a quiet spot in the hotel lobby to call home. As we talked I decided that it was time to sample the Yamazaki brand Hot Cake Sand or ホットケーキサンド, that I had been carrying around since my visit to Koyasan six days earlier. Why I hadn’t eaten it yet I couldn’t really say.

I opened it up with great anticipation! What great deliciousness lay inside- butter and syrupy goodness perhaps? In fact…no, it was pretty terrible, no deliciousness at all. Maybe because it was three days a past it’s suggested freshness date? I doubt that, I think it would have been just as bad if I had eaten the day I bought it.

Continue reading “Yoyogi Park and the final day…”

The cab ride back from Nishiki Market to Kyoto Station was pretty quick. It was hot in the back seat, and I began to sweat like crazy as we sped down the back alley streets. My driver didn’t seem to have any interest in using the air conditioning (at least not in a way that emitted any cold air) so to make the best of the situation, I used my hand fan to cool off and listened along to the classical music coming from the radio.

We sped passed the curiously named “Tits Cafe” before emerging out onto Karasuma Dori, upon which we made a left turn and headed south, towards Kyoto Station. I had the driver stop early to let me out in front of the Yodobashi Camera store, just a block north from the station. It was new since the last time I had been in Kyoto and not really any different from any other Yodobashi Camera, but still, why not have a look, right?

I did a fairly quick walk through of the floors of the giant Yodobashi, ending my tour in the basement. Then it was out the connecting tunnel that leads into the underground Porta shopping area. I saw my beloved KYK Tonkatsu restaurant and bid it farewell until the next time. Then up the escalator and I was back outside standing in front of Kyoto Station in the rain.

The time was now about 4pm and my train was departing at 4:56pm. I decided to spend a few minutes in the large station entrance, having one last look around. It’s such a huge complex, the main open area feels like some sort of modern cathedral.

Continue reading “Kyoto to Tokyo”