kyoto train station practice

While the group was checking out the famous sites (or is it "sights"?) in Nara and Kyoto (thank you to my guest-blogger, Ryan!), Darrell and I were holed up in our room at the New Miyako Hotel.  After the spectacular first class New Keihan Universal Tower Hotel at Universal Studios in Osaka, the New Miyako was, as one of our boys said, "kinda ghetto."  The bathroom was a disappointment; you had to step up into it, like it was pre-fab and just placed into the room in one piece.  The bed was so hard, but maybe that's how the Japanese prefer it since all three hotels we were at had very FIRM mattresses, no fluffy Western hotel chain "Heavenly Beds" with extra thick pillow tops.

But it was conveniently located right across the Kyoto Train Station and this was the view from our window - a shinkansen passing by every 7 minutes or so.  It was amazingly quiet though, no train noises at all.  I was able to go across the street for food for Darrell since room service was not available until dinnertime.  And I was able to finish the book I started reading on the plane to Japan.  We needed the rest, especially since Osaka, Hiroshima and Kyoto were so hot.

The temperature and humidity were probably similar to Hawaii's - maybe 80 degrees or so - but it seemed hotter in Japan since we were constantly outdoors.  All day outside at Universal Studios, all that walking around in Hiroshima.  In Hawaii we are usually in our air-conditioned cars or homes or offices so the heat doesn't bother us as much.  But maybe there are no tradewinds in Japan either?

When the group returned from the tour, we were immediately notified by the radio that all the chaperones and bus captains and staff were assigned to carry around.  It had been quiet all day since they were out of range, but as soon as the buses neared the hotel, there were announcements being made via radio that alerted us that the group was returning.

The plan was to head over to the Kyoto Train Station to check out the venue for the band's performance the next day.  After a quick walk up a lot of stairs, we found ourselves here, in this impressive futuristic structure.  There were 7 stories worth of stairs facing the stage and atrium (the kids are sitting at the bottom) and spectators can sit on the stairs to watch performances on the stage.

They did a run-through of the show at the stage.  Here are the boys doing a hula to "The Boy from Laupahoehoe."

By the time we were done, it was late and time for dinner so I picked up food from train station for me and Darrell to eat in the room and the kids went out to check out restaurants in the train station.  Darrell wanted to eat a donburi but it was so hard to find hot takeout.  After walking up and down the mall area in the station, I found a "supermarket" type place that had packaged meals that I could heat up in the store's microwave oven.  For his breakfast I had gone to the "Mr Donut" there for some pastries and ordered sodas as well.  It was so interesting that they put the sodas in covered cups, then put them in a paper bag, which went into a bigger bag with the pastries.  In Japan, it's considered bad manners to eat or drink while walking around, so I guess they assume you would not want your drink right away and package it up to go.  I found this out myself during my first trip to Japan in college;  my friend Karen and I had gotten ice cream cones in one of the underground shopping areas and then proceeded to walk around eating our cones.  We got a lot of stares and didn't really know why until later.