Moving to Kyoto 「京都」!

Today is the day we leave the enormous expanse of metropolis known as Tokyo, and head south to the significantly less enormous expanse of semi-metropolis known as Kyoto! Such excitement, and, kind of can't wait to leave Tokyo.

We'd already packed our bags the day before, so all that was needed was another final check, then check-out. We left our bags at the hotel in the lobby for them to look after while we ran down the street to have some breakfast.

Had breakfast at a burger joint called Mos Burger, which, for some reason, also makes toast. Oh toast, glorious toast. How I have missed thee. With butter and jam, and a glass of chocolate milk, and then some orange juice. And then another piece of toast with some more butter and jam.

I think I can forgive the Japanese for spreading butter and condiments on their toast with a spoon (that's what butter knives are for... duh), but only because their slices of toast are deliciously light and thick and sweet.

Tummies full-ish, we returned to the hotel, picked up our luggage, said thank-you and goodbye to the staff at the front desk, then made our way to the station.

Ben and I each carried our insanely heavy suitcases, plus a backpack filled with... stuff, I carried the laptop, and Ben had another package in his possession. Lugging it around the station, on the train, then through Tokyo station (which is huge!), then onto the platform, then onto the bullet-train... not so fun.

The bullet-train! It's so cool! It's called shinkansen 「新幹線」in Japanese, and is sleek, white and long. We had pre-bought our tickets a couple of weeks ago. $135 per person to get from Tokyo to Kyoto, sitting in a reserved seat in a non-smoking carriage in the fastest train (called nozomi「のぞみ」) at speeds of up to 300km per hour.

Inside the train it just feels like you're gliding through Japan, the trees, mountains, cities, cars, etc just flowing past you. I found the entire experience quite surreal. Then I picked up my DS and played Final Fantasy and the surreality of it all was lost.

We never got to see Mt. Fuji as we passed through the area either- all the Japanese people had closed their curtains to shield themselves from the outside light, so in the end Japan's iconic mountain successfully eluded us.

The journey to Kyoto only took two hours, and if we weren't cramped in with all our luggage it would have been much more comfortable. But still, two hours isn't that long and before we knew it we were in Kyoto!

We hauled our luggage through the streets of Kyoto to the Youth Hostel our landlord owns. We paid for our stay, chatted a bit about Kyoto, then he drove us to our new apartment. First thoughts include: wow, cute, nice, perfect.

It is small but bright. There are three rooms. The entry/kitchen as you walk through the door. On your right is a door to the bathroom/toilet. Walk through the kitchen(ette) and you're in the living/dining/bedroom.

It comes with everything. TV, internet connection, cutlery, crockery, a portable stove, fridge, freezer, futon (much more comfortable than the wafer-thin thing we slept on at Taka's), towels, storage space, vacuum, low table and floor cushions... like I said... everything.

Washing machine and dryer is located outside, and you have to share it with the people on your floor (we're on the second floor), but considering we live in one of four on the second floor, the chances that someone is using them when you need to is small.

Our landlord is so nice. He is friendly and happy, and he gave us a map, and a quick tour of the area around our apartment so that we knew where all the important things are (grocery stores, supermarket, pharmacy and so on). He then introduced us to two other foriegners living in the building.

Linda on the first floor is from Denmark, and Melanie on the third floor is French. We ended up making plans with them to go out to dinner later, then went back to our apartment to get settled in.

We unpacked our bags, set up our futon, organised the kitchen and wardrobe, went to the shops and bought the vital things (breakfast for tomorrow, milk, some fruit, snacks) and before we knew it it was time to go out!

Linda showed us around a bit further from home on our way to wherever she was taking us to get food. We decided to keep it simple, and got take-away takoyaki (「たこ焼き」octopus balls), some drinks and ate them together on the sides of the river that flows through our area of Kyoto.

It was really nice just to sit there and eat, and talk, and to watch the other people who came down to sit by the river too, watching bats flit around the lights as they hunted down moths to eat.

After dinner we went to a bar called Mushroom, which was a tiny little place, decked out in... mushrooms! Surprise surprise... The music was Super Mario and video game remixes, and was cool at first, but after a beer or so it got annoying, so we migrated to a reggae bar a little further on and had a peach cocktail before walking home and calling it a night.

We haven't even been here a day yet, but it already feels like home.
Can't wait to check it out more tomorrow!

Sorry for the lack of photos... will have some of the apartment up in a later blog!