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| Tofukuji Station, Kyoto |
It was the last night at our
Kyoto Airbnb, so it was a frenzy of packing our latest loot from
Osaka and prepare for the next day. When morning arrived, we had a simple break of sandwiches we bought at the convenience store near the apartment the night before. The bread in Japan, even those from a simple convenience store are just so different: the filling is generous and the bread is not dry and hard at all... must be the holiday effect.
Anyways, with our luggage in tow, we made our way to the
Tofukuji Station and caught a train to
Kyoto Station. When we arrived at
Kyoto Station, it was a flurry of action and people as commuters went about their daily schedules. To be honest, even if we had visited
Kyoto Station almost every day we were in
Kyoto, it was a little overwhelming with all the people walking about… more so when we had our luggage with us, having to meander through the crowd and get our bearings right. 😂
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| The never ceasing crowd |
As there was still some time before our train departed, we decided to buy a bento and eat it on route to Tokyo. At every corner and turn there were shops selling sandwiches and bentos, after walking around for a bit surveying the food, we came to the conclusion that most of them sold more or less the same things. So we just went with the nearest store and bought our bento and drinks.
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| Bento Store |
The bentos range from around 480 to 1000¥. M bought a bento set that came with salmon, while I purchased one that was seasonal (I think). With bento in hand and luggage in tow, we made our way to the platform where we had reserved our seats prior.
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| The train before ours arrived |
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| Waiting for our train |
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| Tickets! |
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| While waiting for the train to arrive, M was already hungry so she started eating her bento set, Her verdict? Her bento was average and the salmon was cold, not what she expected but it was alright. By the time the train arrived, her bento was wiped clean.😆 |
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| The seats on the train were clean and spacious. There was ample of space to place the luggage on the top racks above the seats and/or at the seat within reach. |
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| With a seat next to the window the view was splendid, and about an hour into the ride I started on my bento! Ok, so the bento was not fantastic, but it was not too bad either: the taste was interesting and the prawns were fresh. |
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| Watching the scenery pass by as I munched on my bentp. |
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| Train Tracks |
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| Train |
The train ride from
Kyoto Station to
Shinagawa Station took about 3 hours, before we hopped on a train to
Shibuya,
Tokyo, which took about another hour or so.
Unlike the train ride to
Shingawa from
Kyoto Station, where our seats were reserved, the train to
Tokyo was a normal commuter train so that meant that we had to jostle with the afternoon crowd for a space on the train. It was so packed that we barely made it on board! 😅
The luggage made it even more challenging to maneuver. Thankfully we made it aboard the train amidst the crowd. Needless to say, there were no seats and by the time it was our stop (
Shibuya) we had to squeeze our way out of the passenger crowd to alight. That certainly was an experience.
Getting out of the train was actually no different, because the crowd at the
Shibuya Station was equally packed! It was a culture shock: the number of people and speed at which they walked was more and faster than the crowd in
Kyoto. It was so overwhelming that we actually came out the wrong exit where there was no one to check out JR Pass and let us out. But we managed to get out by following some passengers out of the station. From there it was a short but arduous walk (along the crowd, bumpy pavements and slopes) to our
Tokyo AirBnb Apartment.
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When travel collides with a byte, a unit of information made up of bits, TravelBytez is formed: snippets of ramblings on travel, food, shopping, living and anything else that comes to mind.
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