Tuesday 30th April 2013

Today was looking so promising when we checked out from the Piece Hostel, headed to Ginkakuji to complete our visits to Kyoto’s temples, gardens, shrines and pavilions and then caught our penultimate shinkansen to Tokyo where we hoped we might get to travel at a world record speed.

While we’d been in Kyoto we’d bumped into a guy at a pedestrian crossing who excitedly told us about the new, world record equalling, Hayabusa shinkansen running between Tokyo and Shin-Aomori in the north. With one day left of our JR Passes we thought we’d travel part way to Shin-Aomori, get off at one of the earlier stops and head back to Tokyo before the stroke of midnight turned our JR passes into pumpkins.

By the time we’d got to Tokyo, checked in, unpacked and investigated the timetable it was early evening but we headed to the station confident that we could pick up the Hayabusa, spend half an hour at 320kmph and get off at Omiya. When we headed to the reservation office the ticket staff ruefully had to explain that it was only after Omiya that the train got up to top speed and by that point it was too late for us to travel up to Sendai and come back again so there was to be no super-superfast train journey for us.

Slightly disappointed we thought we’d have a nice walk past the izakaya filled railway arches to Ginza Bairin for tonkatsu. We found it but were then thwarted as they didn’t accept credit cards. So we went to get some cash and by the time we returned they’d shut.

Now not only disappointed but slightly tired and frustrated by this point we’d had enough of finding ‘recommended’ places to eat so walked down a random street and into a place called ‘Casual Tempura’ with plastic chairs and the same 30 seconds of Muzak on a loop. Still, we did have some very tasty tempura and followed it up with a walk round the corner to the Manneken waffle stand because waffles cure all ills.

So, our first night in Tokyo hadn’t exactly been scintillating but we had made some plans for the next few days and were looking forward to exploring one of the most famous cities in the world during daylight.

Daily distance travelled: 377km

Total distance travelled: 11,038km