We’ve been in Tokyo for 3 days and I think one more day would have been too much. There’s so much amazing food, places to go, and things to see but to try to cram in as much as you can in a limited amount of time is overwhelming. From Joanna’s point of view we needed to leave because she was starting to run out of luggage space from all the shopping.
Since the moment we got to Japan, Joanna’s parents have been asking if the subway train in Tokyo we were about to take was a bullet train. I had to explain that they’re just subway trains within the city and the bullet train (shinkansen) is used to go between cities. Today was the day we got to take them on the bullet train and they were very excited.
I think because the climate here is more humid as Japan is near the ocean, the snow falls in clumps bigger rather than flakes (but I’m not a meteorologist so don’t quote me on it) so walking out of the hotel was a bit of a surprise with how snowy it was as we had to make the 13 min walk to the train station. Can you believe it was snowing in the middle of winter? (sarcasm)
One of the highlights of traveling on the shinkansen is the bento boxes. I got an assorted crab, fish, and veggie lunch to eat on the ride to Kyoto. The train was slightly delayed due to the heavy snow in the area. I wanted to make sure I was on the starboard side of the train to see Mt. Fuji as we passed it. Unfortunately the cloud cover was too heavy and it was covered from view. I’m really hoping for good weather the 5 days we’re in the Mt. Fuji area to get some good pics though.
We arrived into Kyoto within 2 hours, Joanna’s parents were impressed with how quickly and smooth the ride was. Considering we just wrapped up 3 full days of shopping and +25k steps, everyone needed an easier rest day. I was able to catch up on laundry as I only packed 5 days worth of clothes. The hotel’s washing machines were free and included free detergent too which was a huge surprise. I just had to pay $2 to use the dryer for an hour.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at a nearby mall where Joanna found a big gatchapon store which promptly took the rest of our cash. I’ll do a gatchapon haul towards the end of the trip to show all of our findings. I was craving someone easy and light. I love how most restaurants in Japan have wax models of their food. It really is what you see is what you get here. The cold dipping soba noodles and shrimp and vegetable tempura hit the spot.
It started snowing heavily again as we headed back to our hotel. I think the snow followed us down from Tokyo. I had no complaints as the walk wasn’t far and it resulted in some nice pictures. I’m glad I upgraded my camera to a weather sealed one with a lens cover that’s got a water repellant coating. The last 3 trips I took my camera on ended up in big rainstorms so the extra insurance of having weather sealing was worth it.
One of the hotel amenities I try to look for now when doing research is if the hotel has a public bath which is called a sento. You may have heard the word “onsen” but those are specific to water that’s geothermically heated and mineral rich. Sentos are just heated tap water, sometimes with minerals added in. With the weather being cold and snowy, this was exactly what my body and my soul needed to rejuvenate itself. I’ve been looking forward to a soak for almost a year.
The snowy photos look amazing! You guys are like straight out of a cozy Hallmark Christmas movie 🤩