Travel to Kyoto

Thursday morning was a perfectly clear and cool morning, our last in Kyushu before heading to Kyoto.  We've been terribly fortunate with the weather, and it's nice that our streak lasted as we headed by train across the mountains.  It was a gorgeous ride.   We followed along the river and the route treated us along the way to waterfalls and views of the rapids.  Also saw some hydroelectric plants and 5 wind turbines perched intrusively on top of a mountain.  I guess the NIMBY syndrome hasn't made it to Japan.


After coming across Kyushu, we ended up where we began - in Fukuoka - and took the Shinkansen up to Kyoto.

The train ride from Fukuoka to Kyoto, a distance of about 320 miles, took a little under 3 hours on the Shinkansen.  The only downside to traveling by Shinkansen is that the train moves so rapidly, and the track on which it rides is set in a raised concrete structure where there are frequent side barriers, that it is tough to sightsee along the way.  But the speed at which it gets you to your destination more than makes up for the lack of sightseeing.  As we left Kyushu and got on the island of Honshu, the weather changed and it began to rain.  By the time we arrived in Kyoto, the skies were quite overcast and it was raining intermittently.


Andrea had booked us 3 nights in the Westin Miyako, which is in the Eastern part of town near the mountains.  She had booked a Japanese style room, thinking it would be interesting to see how a higher end hotel did Japanese style rooms.  Our experience with the Westin did not start out well - at the train station there were no signs to the location of their shuttle service and we had a heck of a time locating where to go.  But the worst part was the room - it was by far the smallest (perhaps not surprising) and one of the most uncomfortable Japanese style rooms we had encountered on the trip. Andrea set to work.  After a visit by two hotel staff people and much Japanese conversation (which didn't involved any raised voices and near as I can figure didn't include any swearing), they said they would move us to a different room the following night.  Well, Andrea scored a win worthy of Roberta Francis! They moved us to a mostly Western style room (there are futon on a platform for a Japanese touch) on the top floor that is nice.  Really nice.  A TV the size of ours at home and no bathroom slippers!  And nice views from the room.  Much, much better.