Goodbye till next time, Tokyo! - Day 16

Friday, June 27th

This morning was our last morning in Tokyo. We ate breakfast, packed up, and sent some of our things home with Bethie and Erik. As I had bought quite a few articles of clothing / necessary items, we were having a difficult time getting everything into our bags. Erik and Bethie to the rescue! 


We bought a box in the lobby, packed away some items we won’t need again on the trip, and Bryan walked it over to their hotel. 


Then we took the shuttle to the train station, and the commuter trains to Tokyo station, and then scanned our tickets for the bullet train to Kyoto. 





The bullet train reminds me of airplane travel, but more spacious. It was past noon at this time, so we nibbled on snacks we had brought with us, Dylan sharing around strawberry KitKats with everyone. Since I can’t have KitKats, he shared some Oreos with me. I really like Oreos, so I enthusiastically bit into one. I cannot recommend the Japanese Oreos. They are not as sweet, don’t have as much filling, and basically taste like a chocolate graham cracker (which is to say, not very good). 


When we arrived in Kyoto, we walked a short way from the station to our Doubletree hotel. As the others were enjoying warm chocolate chip cookies, I was able to check in to two rooms early, and we deposited our bags and left in search of lunch. 





Dylan had found a ramen place less than half a mile walk away, that had good reviews. We all agreed that we would like to try ramen while we were in Japan, so though soup seems like an odd meal choice while the weather is so hot, we went ahead and walked over to the restaurant. 






There was a line of locals out the door that reminded us of the snack stands at Disney. Deciding it was not time for a Disney-wait in the heat for food we were unsure of, we went directly next door. We were seated immediately, and ordered our food. The ramen was delicious!  I ordered the “small” and it seemed like a lot of food. Desmond ordered the “medium” by accident.



Then we went back to the hotel for a rest. But not before stopping in and looking around in the 7-11.  I found a packaged squid snack that reminded me of last time I was in Japan and found a “squid on a stick” packaged snack in a 7-11.


As it was after 3PM, Mom and Dad were able to check into their room when we arrived at the hotel, which was great. Then we all freshened up and cooled off for a bit. 


We walked over to the mall in the evening. Dylan did a little bit of shopping. The rest of us were mostly there for the food court. 




Desmond got 10 gyoza. Bryan, mom and I had Subway sandwiches (which we were happy to be able to customize on a touch screen ordering system). I was amused to see a sign telling students not to sit around studying, right by a couple of girls doing their math homework.



Tomorrow we plan to head for Nara Park and see some deer. For now, it is just nice to be in a smaller city than Tokyo. 


Want to keep Traveling with the Schmidts? Read Day 17



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