Today we had to take the Shinkansen, or bullet train, from Kyoto station. The first part was easy, get onto the subway at the hotel and get off four stops later at Kyoto station. We had quite a wait at Kyoto, so we hunted round for a coffee shop. We didn’t find one. We found a Starbucks, but we weren’t that desperate. We found a Shinkansen information office and asked if there was a coffee place on the platform. He showed us a map with a Starbucks on it. We also asked when we would be able to board the train. He said two minutes before it leaves!
Eventually, we discovered a lower level to the station with a food mall and were able to find an “Italian” coffee bar.
Suitably refreshed, we headed for the gate to the Shinkansen platforms. In Japan, to get from A to B, or Kyoto to Miyajimaguchi in our case, you buy a standard ticket for the complete journey. Then you also purchase a ticket for any express portion of the journey – or Super Express in the case of the Shinkansen. We found the gate and I put my ticket in the machine. As I walked through, the barrier closed in front of me. A guard rushed over, made the machine spit out my ticket and told me to put both tickets through at the same time!
Surprisingly, this worked and they both came out of the other end!
The ticket has your carriage number and seat number printed on it. When you get to the platform, you look for signs for your carriage number and row number. There is one gate at each end of the carriage, and the train stops exactly at the gate, so you all line up at the point corresponding to your seat. This included the party of school children at the gate next to ours, lining up two by two along the platform.
When the train arrives, people leaving have enough space to get off and then the line moves forward like a bunch of newly created cybermen and gets on the train.
I didn’t think it would work with three separate parties of children getting on, but we left exactly on time!
There’s plenty of legroom at your seat, and there’s a map on the back of the table that shows you where you are and where the toilets and rubbish bins are. The train was quite crowded, but also very quiet; you are only allowed to use your phone in the space between carriages. Most people were asleep. The first stop came after about 10 minutes; a bunch of people got off, a bunch more got on and away we went, each stop 90 seconds. Nobody ever took someone else’s seat.
Eventually, we got to Hiroshima, and got off the train during the allotted 90 seconds. I found out where our connection was going to be and put my ticket in the machine. It spat it out again! So I put both tickets in, it let me through and returned only my standard class ticket.
Trains to Miyajimaguchi run every 15 minutes, but I’d spotted a lovely little bakery, so we thought we’d stop for a little bite. The process is to take a tray and a pair of tongs from the entrance, select your products and go to the cashier. There, they bag it if you’re taking away or put it on a tray in a little basket with an oshibori, a hand towel. Every few minutes, someone would bring the newly sanitised trays and tongs back to the entrance. Perfect. I had a doughnut filled with red bean paste and Diane had something to do with Halloween with no English description. Both were delicious.
We then went though the barrier and down to our platform, where we were surprised to see long lines at each point where the doors would open. Surprised because this was a local train that runs every 15 minutes. However, when the train arrived, the cybermen routine kicked in and we were soon on our way. Being a local train, it took about 30 minutes to get to Miyajimaguchi, where we needed to catch the ferry to the island of Miyajima. We had an A4 sheet that was supposed to be our ticket, but when we got to the ferry, we were made to queue at the ticket desk. There we had to pay another 200Yen before they’d let us in. No idea why, but we missed the ferry and had to wait another 15 minutes for the next one.
Once at Miyajima, we asked the information desk to call the shuttle for our hotel. She said to wait by the taxi rank and it would be about 10 minutes. As we headed for the taxi rank we realised that a van with the name of our hotel on the side was already there. The hotel had just rung the driver and told him to wait for us.
The drive up to the hotel was very steep and winding, but the place itself is gorgeous, a traditional Japanese building set in a woodland, with ornamental pond, bridge and a resident deer.
We weren’t allowed to check in before 3pm, so we decided to head for the cable car to the summit of Mount Misen. This is a six-man car so we were sharing with two Japanese couples. When we got to the top the worker shouted “change cars here” and we found out that the ascent was in two parts. The final stage was two fixed cars for about 20 people, like a free standing funicular.
Up we went again, looking forward to the observatory at the top. Which was just a rail and a pay telescope. There wasn’t actually that much to see, so we retraced our steps and got back to the hotel at about 3:30. The receptionist told us to take a seat and our room maid would be with us soon! A couple of minutes later an older lady in traditional costume turned up along with a young apprentice and showed us to our room, where we were reunited with the luggage we forwarded yesterday.
The room has a little lobby where we were made to remove our shoes before she showed us into the room proper. It is very Japanese style, with sliding paper doors everywhere and a glassed in balcony looking onto the forest. There’s a huge table in the middle of the room with a legless seat either side. Fortunately there’s also a coffee table on the balcony with two seats you can sit on.
They brought in our welcome tea, along with a little cake filled with red bean paste and explained what was in the room. This included Japanese outfits for us both plus housecoats, toed socks for wearing the Japanese sandals and a fancy bag to carry your towel between room and communal Onsen bathhouse.
The only thing missing was the bed!
There’s a set menu here for dinner, and when we went down, we found that there were nine courses. Actually, make that eight because oysters really don’t do it for me. This included sashimi, a gorgeous bouillabaisse and a very nice beef and mushroom stew.
When we got back to the room, we found that they’d moved the huge table to one side and created beds in the middle of the room. Very low beds!
Goodnight!
Steve and Diane on Tour 