I’m back in my hotel room after a more laid-back day. At least I sat down a lot more. I even rode trains long enough to read my Kindle. After a relaxing morning reading, catching up, paying bills, and doing yoga, I realized I needed to hustle to get my train to Osaka. I took a taxi to Kyoto Station and made it to my train with five minutes to spare.
Oh boy, I’m so, so glad I stood in line for an hour last night at the end of a long day to get a reserved seat for the train to Osaka. I’m being sarcastic because the train was not crowded and no one checked my ticket anyhow.
And then Osaka just didn’t really do it for me. There’s a big castle but there are more castles to see and there was no way I was standing in a 2-hour line to get in. And it’s a replica as Osaka was bombed to smithereens in the war. (Kyoto was spared because of all the historic sights.) But I took some nice photos of the castle and a few more of the rapidly disappearing cherry blossoms.
Then I rode the Osaka loop train to see this special area called Dotonbori. Meh! I wasn’t impressed. Kyoto has a certain charm and Tokyo is really exciting, but Osaka has neither.
So I went the long way on the loop back to Osaka Station to change to a train to Kyoto, which was fine but it wasn’t a fancy train with a tray table, so my precious, yummy lunch went uneaten till I got back to Kyoto station. There are all these fabulous finger foods and takeaway goodies, but nowhere to eat them. No tables or chairs anywhere. It’s impolite to eat as you walk along. You can’t eat on a train unless it has a little tray table, like on an airplane. They often give you a wet wipe for your hands before you eat, but there are rarely napkins for the meal. I tell you, I am programmed to eat with a napkin on my lap and feel weird without one. Plus, napkins are very helpful! Traveling is messy, chopstick use is ubiquitous and while I’m proud of my skills, I’m pretty sure a 7-year-old Japanese kid can do better than me.
Now I’m relaxing before a special dinner I booked ahead based on a recommendation from someone I met in Tokyo. Or maybe Instagram. I can’t remember.
Well, the dinner was good. Definitely a little avant-garde. It would have been more fun if it wasn’t so far away and it hadn’t started to rain and the train hadn’t been so hard to find. Actually, I knew where the train was – it was the subway from the hotel, which I have taken several times now, that I couldn’t negotiate for some reason today. Did I mention how cool Kyoto Station is? Soaring is the adjective that comes to mind.
So, I need to slow my pace and there’s definitely a mellowing of the upcoming locations for a little while. My feet are pretty much bruised from the walking, my knees are killing me because of all the stairs in the subway stations, and my back aches from the walking too. I have a massage booked on Friday when it’s expected to rain so hard. The question is, should I go to Nara tomorrow? The attraction is a shrine or something and tame deer running all over the place. I still have sights I haven’t seen in Kyoto. Plus I have the “Romantic” train trip tomorrow afternoon. This is just a window into my attempt to plan my trip on the fly.
