Train to Kyoto

On Friday we checked out of our hotel and took the train into Tokyo Station, where we caught a bullet train to Kyoto.  

The bullet trains are very nice, spacious and smooth and fast. They don't turn the trains around at the end of each line, instead the seats are on a swivel and are turned so that they always face forward. Its about 280 miles from Tokyo to Kyoto, but it only took a little over two hours for the bullet trip to get there.

We were hoping to see Mt Fuji from the train as we passed, but it was too cloudy. We were able to see some of the Japanese countryside, although it went by pretty fast.

When we arrived in Kyoto, we took a shuttle bus to our hotel, the Westin Miyako. Kyoto is a fairly big city, none of the main sites in Kyoto were too close to the hotel, which was on the east side of the city, and we didn't really want to try to figure out the bus or subway system. A reservation is needed to see the Imperial Palace grounds, so we decided to take a taxi to Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion. We had to walk a couple of blocks up an alley way to get to this Buddhist Temple.

Built in the 15th century by a former Shogun, it had a nice garden and a decent view of Kyoto from the hill above it, but there wasn't anything real impressive about it.