Help! A Dinosaur Ate My Ekiben

 April 19, 2023

We went back to Tokyo Station for a final time this morning. In the station we picked up food for our train ride today. I chose ekiben. Eki means train station and ben is short for “bento box,” so ekiben is a special bento box you can buy at the train station to eat on the train.

My ekiben was still warm when I bought it, and I really enjoyed it, but I probably should have gotten one that was slightly smaller.

The label on the box says it was made today. There was a sample at the store, showing what was inside.

It came with chopsticks, a toothpaste, and a damp napkin. In Japan, damp napkins are standard. Dry napkins are almost non-existent.

Lower left: pickled vegetables
Main part of left section: (from top down) fruit?, fish paste, slice of rolled omelet, fried chicken, dried apricot, five dumplings, hot mustard, and a tiny bottle of soy sauce
Right section: eight rice balls and one sour cherry

We took the shinkansen, or bullet train, to Kyoto. Traveling at nearly 200 mph, it got us there in a fast 2 hours and change. It’s so quiet and smooth, you don’t even realize how fast it is going.

We first sighted Fuji not long after leaving Tokyo. I love this photo. Ken accidentally captured a man looking at our train. Who is he? Why is he looking at the train?

And later, this was our view (with a bit of zoom)

The highlight of our route was passing Mount Fuji. It is a thrill to see this majestic, perfectly-proportioned, dormant volcano. 

We arrived at our hotel too soon to check in, so we headed out by bus to Kiyomizudera Temple. The Temple was established by a Buddhist sect founded in the 8th Century. The present structure was constructed in 1633, without a single nail. 

We took a bus from Kyoto Station and walked a few blocks to the temple.  We passed all sorts of interesting little eateries, gift shops, kimono rental shops, and other touristy businesses. We stopped for a snack of dumplings.

When we reached Kiyomizudera we found beauty everywhere we looked. The Main Hall includes a 43-foot high stage or deck which provides a great view of Kyoto — on a clear day, that is.

The deck of the Main Hall can be seen behind me

A view of the deck from below. It looks quite sturdy.

Kiyomizudera sits on a large wooded parcel, with several smaller temples and shrines, as well as a sacred waterfall. We spent some time roaming the grounds and enjoying all the green.

Kyoto is visible, shrouded in haze, to the left of the pagoda

A pair of foxes guard this shrine

Finally we returned to the bus stop by a different route, passing many more touristy businesses, as well as crowds heading to and from Kiyomizudera. When we got to the bus stop there were a lot of people waiting, and we decided to just walk back to our hotel.

We ate dinner at a revolving sushi bar at Kyoto Station. It was fun selecting little plates of sushi from the conveyor belt, and it was really oishi, delicious. The cost of each plate is determined by it’s color. When you are finished, someone counts your plates  with a scanner to determine your bill.

The conveyor belt can be seen in the upper left of this photo

On the way back, Libby discovered that a hotel a half block from our hotel had dinosaur robots at the check-in counter. They were so life-like we thought they were people wearing masks or costumes. Apparently this hotel has no staff, only robots. I’m not sure how that is possible.

Here they are, working the front desk. The photo does not show the incredibly lifelike motion of these robots. They sway ever so slightly, and they seem to become more alert when a human walks by.
 

Today’s color is vermilion, the color of Shinto shrines. (The Buddhist temples are not normally painted, but Shinto shrines are often very colorfully. You will often find the two in close proximity, as here at Kiyomizudera. Well, this is something of an oversimplification.)