[PICS] A Weekend in Kyoto
Inside the Shinkansen from Kyoto...
March 21st, Tuesday. 10:30 a.m.
Leviosa and Frikisui, loaded to the teeth with travel bags and shopping bags, arrive at Kyoto Station, right in front of the Shinkansen ticket vending machine. We check the scheduled trains and realize that the next best one departs at 10:35, since the following choices require changing trains or waiting over 2 hours. No way. In my reckless rush, I believe the escalators past the ticket control are those for the tracks. I purchase the tickets (2 for each required), give Frikisui hers and make haste to the controls at 10:33. Both at the same time get stopped at said controls: we both have two of the same tickets. After exchanging them quickly, we go up the escalators, trying not to push people (and failing) only to find those take to the Shinkansen lounge. Dammit. I had forgotten about the lounge. I ask Frikisui about the platform, but my brain doesn't process the answer. Nozomi 11, platform 11 screams my head. I cannot think properly anymore. We RUN up the escalator and when I get to the platform, I realize we have to go to number 13 instead. It is almost 10:35. Frikisui is screaming to me from the top of the wrong escalator, but I have a train to stop, therefore, *I* cannot stop. While ascending now the right escalator, I hear the beeping of a leaving shinkansen. My mind is already thinking what would happen if we miss it, how can we change the tickets, how we would have to wait. No, that train has to stop. However, the platform is already empty. "The doors are closing", I hear. No! "Matte, matte, matte, matte, matte!", I repeat in a low voice, gesturing towards both sides of an open door, in case the conductors can see me from some inside mirror. I feel some panic inside, but the adrenaline rush is too powerful, and until Frikisui gets to the platform, I have to stand between the closing doors if necessary. I know this trainstopping and last-minute-getting in the train habit of mine is going to be the death of me. There is no need for it this time, anyway. She arrives safely and gets inside, curses a great deal, and the doors close after her. I cannot breathe, she can only breathe to curse me and all my ancestors so far as the Middle Ages. We look for our car number, taking care of not blasting any F*baby's head with the bags (careless mothers who have them hanging over the aisle!), and when we finally get our luggage in place and our safe asses on the seat, I realize what is written on the tray of the front seat: "For your safety, don't rush for your train".
"[..........]" (C) Squall Lionheart
It was a nice trip, 3 days travelling and shopping, without stressing ourselves (...?), just going to a couple of touristic sites, a couple of Animate and Mandarakes (we couldn't find Meikido, but I found the doujinshi shop I couldn't find in Kyoto three years ago!), a couple of Karaokes and a lot of minor shops. The weather was awful on Saturday and Sunday, but great on Monday. We spent some time with my Japanese family. And the top hit sung by us (we ended up singing it even in dreams) at the karaoke was "Shonen yo, shinjiru nakama yo", by Roy Mustang and the Roy-tachi. Thanks to my Japanese family, the hotel in Kyoto was for free (they had coupons!), and what a hotel! You can see the view from our room and other Kyoto landscape pictures clicking on the link for the album below:
A weekend in Kyoto (18 pictures)
Unbelievable but true: Hunter x Hunter fans might remember the Hunter exam, when Gon trains hard to beat Hisoka , waiting for the moment he is fighting an enemy to take the chance of getting his plate. We were having breakfast sitting on some stairs near the Kamogawa river, and feeding some bread crumbs to a lonely pigeon when, out of the blue, an eagle or some subspecies zoomed between us, scaring the hell out of us (and the pigeon!). It had been waiting for the moment the pigeon aproachead us to take the bread, to go for it! When we looked up, we had like 6 or 7 eagle-like birds flying in circles not-so-well above our heads, like vultures waiting for the moment to lunge. Gosh, Japan's fauna!! Mind you, we were almost in downtown Kyoto. Middle of the city. And we could hear them in the morning. It's still better than crows, but I'd rather have the little birds chirping.
I will try to catch up with everything I can, but I have to work tomorrow and depart again for Osaka on Thursday. Frikisui leaves on Friday, and I leave for Spain on Saturday. These two weeks, I am not spending more than two nights in any place. It's crazy!