After all those pictures of Kyouto history and culture, you're probably a bit sick of looking at temples and castles. So here's a look at the modern side of Japan--it's rail system! This page is titled as "Shinkansen," which is the name for the super-fast bullet trains that connect the main cities; however, there are pictures of everything train-related on this page.
This is the first thing we saw in Kyouto--fabulous, enormous, and brand-spanking-new Kyoutoeki (Kyouto Station). It's so modern and nouveau, that there's no one in it yet! Actually, it was 6:30am when we got in to the station, and nothing really gets started until 10am. We wandered around the empty station desperately searching for coffee. Fortunately, we found coffee near by the station.
Up one side of the station interior are about 12 flights of stairs and escalators. They weren't open to the top when we came in, but we went up before we left on the last day. There's a really nice view of nighttime Kyouto from the top.
There's also a skyway that connects either side of the station. You can see a good part of it in this picture, running along the laticework metal roof. We actually walked in the skyway, at the top of the station roof. It was pretty freaky! The entire structure is very open and airy, following the ancient Kyouto tradition of keeping structures breezy to alleviate summer heat.
On the far end of the station were the shinkansen platforms. We tromped off here after visiting Kyouto's cultural sites, with tickets to Hiroshima in hand ($100 a piece, each way... and that's not a bad deal for transportation in Japan). Here's one shinkansen that I call the "platypus."
A shink coming in on a modern-looking platform...and a Japanese woman.
Another shink head-on as it approaches the station. The trainman is standing ready to assist.
This was our train, which I call the "silver bullet" because it is silver and shaped like a bullet. Brilliant!
A front view of a platypus shinkansen at Hiroshima station...
This is the interior of the train. It's very much like an airplane, except you never have to fasten your seatbelt. The train itself is incredibly smooth and quiet. I recommend travel by shinkansen, despite the expense. The only complaint was that there was very little space for our luggage.
To get to and from Kyouto, we took the overnight sleeper train. Here is a picture of the information board showing the arrival of our train. It flashes in English too, but the top one is ours. It says "Nihonkai 3gou" or "Sea of Japan Number 3." That's the name of our train. The one underneath it is called "Sandaabaado" (i.e. Thunderbird). No idea where that goes.
Here comes the train! Families and high school students are all waiting to board.
Kim flashes the peace sign as she prepares to enter a not-so-peaceful sleep. "Overnight sleeper" invokes images of small but plush little private compartments with a liquor cabinet and waiters bringing meals from the "dining car.". This is not the case unless a vending area constitutes a dining car. Unlike the smooth, sleek, quiet, and fast shinkansen, the night train is bumpy, rough, noisy, and slow. It takes nine and a half hours to go from Kyouto to Tsuruoka (about 300 miles). It wasn't so bad, though, and we saved a lot of money while maximizing our vacation time....maybe.