Japan: October 2024: Day 2: Tokyo to Kyoto

Japan

Oct 2024: Day 2: Tokyo to Kyoto

Pre-arrival meal; the cod doesn't look as good as the salmon.

Feet dry not far from Narita.

10:59 actual flight time, 5,792 miles (Flightaware), 5,445 miles (great circle), 5,449 miles (IFE).

Even the Japanese countryside looks different.

One of ANA's high-density Airbus A380's for Hawaii flights.

Nintendo display inside Terminal 1 arrivals at Narita Airport.

Oooooo Smash Bros...

Helpful but the touch interface was terrible.

Horrible fail, should have gone to ticket counter instead-- machine chose too tight of a connection for us and we didn't have the skill to fix it.

Onboard the Narita Airport Express.

Switching to English for the tourists.

It's a haul from Narita to Tokyo.

Finally arrived at the hotel.

Rooms at The Chapter Kyoto are not large.

7-Eleven for snacks.

Diana required egg salad sandwiches.

Shrimp onigiri were not bad.

Creme brulee ice cream was too sweet. But fun to try.

Had forgotten how long the taxiways were at Tokyo's Narita Airport-- but finally got there. Diana arrived not too long after, and then after getting organized and an unknowning train screw-up, we were on our way to Kyoto via the Narita Airport Express and then the Shinkansen to Kyoto.

We went to a ticket machine instead of the ticketing booth for the train tickets, which was our mistake. Japanese train ticket machines operate somewhat differently than I am used to, and despite having read about it before, it was very unclear how this worked. Add in that the ticket machine defaults to a very short connection time between the Narita Airport Express and the Shinkansen, and we ended up missing our connection and losing our assigned seats on the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto. After a 10+ hour flight, a few more hours in airports in the process, and on the Narita Airport Express itself...

Let's just say we were falling asleep standing up on the two hour train ride between Tokyo and Kyoto... and the train was packed. After stopping in Nagoya, enough people had gotten off the train that Diana was able to get a seat and sleep for a bit, while I stood over the luggage the rest of the way. We at least splurged on a taxi from Kyoto station to the hotel, because with luggage, navigating the local trains was not an appealing option.

Penultimate stop of the day was the 7-Eleven across from the hotel, where Diana began her obsession with egg salad sandwiches, eaten on the tiny hotel room's equally tiny table as a very belated dinner. We were so tired we had forgotten to grab fried chicken from 7-Eleven as well (oops!)-- so half an egg salad sandwich, half a shrimp onigiri, and a few bites of creme brulee ice cream each was it before we passed out.