Day 10 - Tokyo - Shinkansen, Shibuya, Shteak

Today marked the end of our time in Kyoto, and so we made our way via Shinkansen towards the expanse that was Tokyo. Kyoto had been a wonderful city to see - and whilst we could've easily spent another week there, it was time to move on and see more of this lovely land.

Adelaide and I were on different wavelengths about what time we needed to be up this morning, so I set an alarm for what I thought was 8am, so I could have an early shower and do a quick re-pack of my bag, however I had forgotten that my phone hadn't been synced to the Japan time, and was still on Brisbanes - an hour ahead of us - so I got grumbled at when it went off at 7 am. We slept through it (although I'm now being informed that I slept through it, others did not) until 845, when we properly got up and quickly went about showering and packing our bags back up.

Our room in Kyoto

Thrust into the cold morning of Kyoto for one last time, we considered having brekkie at the cafe next to the lobby of our hotel - a petite french place that also sold pastries, but had been full every morning without fail - and this was no different. With that option gone, we headed off to "Precious Coffee Moments", yet another cafe chain Adelaide had spotted in Sanjo-dori, for their advertised BLT's in particular (Adelaide: "BACON!"). Being Sunday morning, not much was open so the shopping street was fairly quiet.

The cafe had a small garden towards the rear which many of the patrons were sitting around when we arrived - and it made me remark about how most of the shops and restaruants we'd been to had been very long and not very wide - we'd learned a bit about this in Hiroshima; when the Shogun begun taxing the richer class, they were calculated based on how wide the front of your property was, which eventually made residences (and shops) skinnier. Whether this reasoning is still relevant or has just hung around since those times is up to discussion. The BLTs came out fast, and we ate them with our coffees. Thankfully this morning Adelaide was able to finish eating a meal without needing to decorate herself with part of it (I'm getting scowled at now).

Breakfast

The cafe is close to Kyoto Shiakusha-mae, the station we needed to board at to get back to Kyoto station, so it was just a short walk around the corner. We transferred at Karisume-Oike, and then arrived at Kyoto station. We didn't learn from the previous day's adventure in the maze underneath it, and made the same mistake by walking into the shopping centre. This time we exited mid way through when we were able to board the stations escalators.

Because we were pressed for time before our departure, we calculated that we wouldn't have enough time to go see the Kyoto Sky Tower, in case we got stuck up there or there was a long line. Instead, we decided to check out the top of Kyoto station. The building has such an airy design, with a string of escalators on the western side which lead up to an open area at the top which has limited views of the surrounding area. After lugging our suitcases up to the top, we were disappointed when we didn't find any shops or food stalls - just a small garden. Probably why it's not on high on any must-see lists.

ENHANCE!

Yeah pretty bare...

Figuring we'd wait at the Shinkansen terminal, we headed back down and through the JR gates. There are only 4 Shinkansen platforms at Kyoto station, so finding ours was no challenge. I got setup on a bench while Adelaide went on the hunt for snacks and lunch. She returned with water, citing that there weren't any Konbinis around. We had conviently setup near a shop however, so we took a few turns checking out the store's stock - on my first trip in I bought some Tuna Onigiri, then Adelaide went in to buy some chips and chocolate. We tag-teamed when I figured I needed something more filling, and bought a bento-box (which included rice, pork and some beef). Once I came out with it, Adelaide figured she should get one, and went back inside to buy the same one. At this point, I think the patience with the store vendor was wearing a little thin.

We'd also run out of time, as our train had arrived. We boarded and got ourselves settled. Being the busier Kyoto to Tokyo leg, the train which ran on it was made up of a 2 / 3 seat configuration, unlike the 2 / 2 seat ones that we'd ridden between Osaka, Hiroshima and Kyoto. The seats were a little less comfortable than the previous trains too, but we still had plenty of leg room, big windows and overhead space so there really isn't much to complain about - especially when comparing to air travel.

Because the Bento boxes were annoying to carry and store (as well as being kept cold in the store), we opened them once we'd gotten sorted on the train. Of course, when we were mid-way through them, the ticket inspector came to check ours. We notified him of our bags down the back of the car, which put our minds to ease a little bit when we stopped at stations. The bento boxes were made up half of rice, with a small spagehtti component, then some fried pork and beef, and most of it was delicious (apart from the pickled onions(?) and the pork AND beef combined roll), and it got even better when I discovered they'd sold it with some Okonomiyaki sauce - definitely going to have to find that when we get home. Adelaide wasn't able to finish all of hers, and I was far too full from my morning's snackings to polish it off.

Delicious lunch

With our lunch over, we settled in for the ride - Adelaide read, while I listened to more music and took the occasional photo out the window. I got super excited when I saw my first snow-capped mountain, and it was only the start. As we continued, there seemed to be almost always some in the distance.

Snow!

 Passing over the bay west of Hamamatsu, I started to see the outline of Mt Fuji. Despite the good visibility (but not perfect), Adelaide had her doubts. As we got closer, the outline of it's peak became more visible, until Shizuoka when it became clear. When the Shinkansen rounded the coast, we came out of a tunnel near the town of Fuji, and was able to behold the mountain. We were lucky as there was only one cloud skirting the base. From the distance we were at, it was hard to put into perspective the scale of it all, and it felt close enough that it would be a short walk away. The section of track passing the mountain took maybe 10 minutes to complete, so we only had a short time to see it.

It's there... trust me

The outline coming in

Dat framing

Shinkansen Safari

In all it's glory

In the shadow of the beast

Once it dissapeared behind us, as we entered a tunnel, it escaped from view for good after that. We continued with what we were doing as we began to enter the Tokyo-area sprawl, stopping at Yokohama before we needed to disembark at our station - Shinigawa. The train was going to continue onto Tokyo central, but as the city is so big, there's a few "central" stations, and Adelaide had deemed that this would be the easiest to get to our accommodation from.

We were instantly thrown into the bustling madness that was Tokyo, and transferring between the Shinkansen and local JR line, we didn't have any time to stop and take in the concrete jungle views. The Yamanote line was easy to get to, thankfully, and we had a under a minute's wait at a packed platform for our train to arrive. We didn't have to be jammed onto our carriage, but some of the ones further down looked a little more 'intimate'.

After 4 stops, and the population of the train not changing a whole lot, we got off at Shibuya Station. We figured our way out the west exit, where we tried to get ourselves oriented, and took a southern heading past the bus station, over an expansive pedestrian overpass which had maybe 6 or 8 sets of stairs in all kinds of directions. Greeted with a few complicated intersections, we took a wrong turn and had to re-acquaint ourselfs with the map. In doing so, we realised we'd only made one wrong turn just back up the street, and so we headed the right way and found our hotel.

Took this a little later that night

Hmmm...

The Shibuya Granbell Hotel is much trendier than The Kyoto Royal Park, but in that, it's also a little lower-market. The place is under the final stage of some repairs, so there was boxes and luggage all over the foyer - and we've found both elevators clad in blue foam. The staff were very competent in English which gave us an idea of the audience staying here (as well as an elevator laiden with other Aussies). The room we're in now is small (in typical Japanese style), but is around the same size as our last one, if anything, with a bigger bathroom.

But I don't want to go in the scarey blue elevator!

We dropped our bags and hung around for a while before heading back out at 5pm. First stop - Shibuya Crossing! Going back past the station, we only had to go north a little bit more to find it. It was much bigger than I'd envisaged, and I thought it would have buildings on all sides, but in reality it one quarter is kept free for an overpass (and a gate to a station). We stayed a few minutes to watch a cycle of the lights, and it's quite amazing that so many people mass up there in such a short space of time.

Down the road

Outside of Shibuya Bus Station

Shibuya Crossing

Walls of people

Satisfied we'd seen enough, we decided to join the crowd and it felt kinda like a medival battle being at the front, and trying to dodge other people was just as dangerous in some cases. Once we'd crossed the road, we headed down the northern street, until Adelaide spied a Forever 21, which of course we had to check out. A 6 floor fully dedicated store, this outlet had a few things that caught Addy's fancy (a shirt and a dress), and while she tried them on, I checked out the mens stuff on the top floor where I found some neat pants which I bought too. All items were pretty cheap by Australian standards, and we didn't even check out the cheap floor!

While trying on her clothes, Addy had realised that we were nearby to a Village Vanguard - another trendy trinkets store which had all kinds of geeky and cool wares, and so we went a block or two before stumbling upon it without much effort. Located in the basement of a building (above the Tokyo Lockup restaurant), we spent another half hour in there, losing ourself in the store. They have so much merchandise spread from floor to ceiling you get a bit overloaded the first 5 minutes your in there. If they had one in Australia, we'd buy so much stuff there - bar paraphernalia, Star wars, toy story and cartoon merch, as well as books and RC things, it's an unusual mix.

In the crowds

Resistant to impulse buying, we left it empty handed and continued walking, this time with the goal of dinner in mind. We checked out a number of traditional places but none stood out, or were too overpriced for our liking. Wandering for a time, we ended up facing an Outback Steakhouse. Now I'd promised myself I wouldn't have anything too 'westerny' for dinner, but considering I'd done my bit and had 3 Onigiris (oh yeah... I left out how many earlier), as well as a bento box, I think I'd done my part for the day, and it being so close to Australia day, we figured why not.

We entered the restaurant to check out the menu and immediately our mouths watered over the thought of a steak, so we seated. The place was confusing as we couldn't remember whether it was owned by an Aussie, or if it was American-owned trying to replicate Australian style. Continuous use of the word 'shrimp' and terribly named meals and drinks (like the Gold Coast Rita and the New South Wales Sangria) didn't help our cause - and as it turns out, it's American... -_- (although think about that: Aussies, eating in an American owned store styled to be Australian in Japan - confused yet?)

Despite the cultural confusion of the place, the steaks came quickly, and were amazing - a real taste of home if you could call it that. We ate our meals and then ordered dessert which was called "Chocolate Thunder From Down Under", which was a brownie with ice cream and cream, and we demolished it in a few minutes. We're still not sure if we recieved an American sized portion, or if the waitress had just combined both our requests, but we ended up eating a REALLY big one. In our fatness, we were considering ordering another when the waitress thurst the bill onto us without us asking if we were finished (A hint perhaps?).

The bill was steeper than our previous night's feasting, but we were happy to foot the bill for the sake of being somewhat patriotic (almost). We left there and passed a Citibank outlet where we completed our third withdrawal, still pretty happy with how we're going for money - even though the ATM gave us a little scare with it's lack of details on Addy's account. We made sure it was all fine at the point of service, and cleared it up once we got back to our hotel though so it's all good.

Out and about

We back tracked through to Shibuya Crossing (still busy as ever), and took a different turn home afterwards, down a street to check out more of the town - past a very big and very busy Pachinko slot machine farm (they seem to be everywhere, but you'd be hard pressed finding a proper casino). We spotted a cool looking pub, called Abbots Choice, where we made lots of jokes about the Tone. It had a group of Americans in the corner, as well as some usual suspects at the bar, so we seated ourselves and ordered a drink each (Adelaide a vodka cranberry with suspiciously low amounts of vodka, and myself an English ale). The bartenders were pretty fluent in English so we had a little conversation with them about where we're from and where we're going, and it was very merry.

Once we'd finished, we returned to our hotel for the night. Just because we're extra fat we might get a room service pizza soon before watching some TV and bed. Because why not.

Tomorrow is STRAYA day, so we're going to go to the Imperial Palace Gardens, Tokyo Midtown for Ice-skating, and maybe an Australian pub to finish up? ;) Until then, Goodnight!