Kyoto here we come

Day 5 is traveling day to Kyoto.

We enjoyed a hardy kaiseki breakfast and walked to Gora station, much easier going downhill!

Bye Gora Ichinoyu, we enjoyed our stay!

Gora Station

Last rest area before boarding the train to Hakone-Yumoto.

*Big Tip: if Hakone is a place you would like to visit, please go during the week (we left on Saturday). When we arrived at Hakone-Yumoto station it was standing room only (and this was in February). I can only imagine how crowded the sites around Hakone were about to become!

 From Hakone-Yumoto we took the train to Odawara Station

Best ham sandwiches in the world!

Although we arrived early, the only train tickets left were in the smoking section - nope, not sitting there and first class. So we opted for the Green Car (first class). This was not in our budget, but hey, why not. How often does a trip like this come around...

From Odawara we traveled to Mishima Station to switch trains. 

Here we found another delight - hot corn soup from a vending machine. 

On our way to Kyoto we passed through so many mini-climate areas of rain, snow and sun.

 By the way, the train has really nice clean toilets!

Arrival in Kyoto, what a site to behold. This is no train station, it is a mall, theater, food court, department store, hotel, bus and taxi depot and offices that just happens to have a gigantic train station attached. Whoa!

I couldn't get a picture because of the crowds and quite frankly this is something that needs to be experienced, kind of like the Grand Canyon. 

First things first - FOOD. Not hard to find, but so many choices. 

Even the plastic models look good enough to eat!

 

After walking around the endless corridors we decided on an Unagi restaurant. 

After lunch we had to figure our way to the hotel, which happened to be on the other side of town, this trip was made for a taxi. Did you know, in Japan, the taxi doors open and close automatically. The driver does not have to get out of their car. Good thing for the taxi ride, the Hyatt was about a 15 minute ride. After getting lost in Tokyo, thought it best not to try to navigate a walk our first time in Kyoto.

Arrival, finally at the Hyatt Regency Kyoto. This place is designed by a company called Superpotato.
When I first read this on a blog I thought it was a translation error, but sure enough there is a real design firm that creates these interesting places. It had weird long hallways and multiple elevators to get to certain locations, but was clean and modern.

As we were checking in, the staff realized our room wasn't ready, so what did they do, gave us an upgrade. Ok, no complaints here. I already knew the room we chose was going to be nice, so what could an upgrade look like...here ya go

 

I couldn't believe the size of this room, I think in most places this would have been two rooms!

but wait there's more...

we did not touch any of the food or drink products, can't imagine how much that would have added to the bill, but they sure were nice to look at. 

We opted to bring our own adult beverages and snacks!

Shijo Dori

After settling in we wasted no time hopping on a bus and heading to the shopping streets.

We began our exploration with Nishiki Market. This shopping street intersects with the larger shopping street, Teramachi, did not know this at the time. Imagine, if you will, a football field long sidewalk filled on either side with vendors of all type, mostly food stuffs but lots of other things too. We managed to find some much needed warm socks. 

*Tip: American shoes sizes can be somewhat larger than Japanese shoe sizes! Always opt for the XL.

We thought we had seen it all when low and behold another shopping street, Teramachi. Now take that football field length street triple it and intersect it with 3 or 4 crossovers. Who, what, where?

So I thought the department stores and train stations were incredible, but the shopping streets are another amazing site to behold. The vendors here had more clothing type stuff and the cool crab house below. Oh, and being the weekend this place was packed!

Shijo Dori

After a few hours of walking and being overwhelmed by the crowds and sites, we began to trek back to the Hyatt on the other side of town. Now why we thought walking to the other side of town was a great idea, I will never know. The distance on the map didn't seem as far as it really was. YIKES!

After about 20 minutes and the fun of it all wearing off for the night, we realized we were starving. So to our amazement we found an Okonomiyaki dive. A site for sore eyes...and feet!

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese pancake/omelet type thing with eggs and all the fixin's, like meat, potatoes and onions. This and a hot cup(s) of sake made us whole again so we could continue on our trek. Another time a cab would have been useful.

Next Day 2 in Kyoto