We took care of most of the packing last night, so we mostly just had to get up and go this morning. We activated our Rail Passes, but the train we had to take to Kyoto was not owned by JR, so we had to pay the fare.
The train was pretty nice though, and had some interesting views from it, although I think we were all too tired from getting up early and hauling luggage all over the place to really appreciate it.
We arrived in Kyoto and found the place without much difficulty, however we got there about 3 hours before check-in. We took it upon ourselves to wander around and explore the area.
We saw signs like this one, which we thought were for a Pokemon Center like the one we were looking for in Osaka, but it turned out to be some sort of exhibition on the top floor of a department store.
It was pretty neat, but there wasn't really much to do there. I got a pikachu visor, they gave us some Pokemon bags, and we took a few pictures. This also spelled the doom for our "pose like any statue you see" game, as there just too many and in too strange poses, as most pokemon are not humanoid, and noone wanted to go down on all fours.
We went back to our hostel to get back at about 3:00, where we got to see our rooms.
The view is pretty good, and my bunk is the closest to the window.
The common room in the hostel is pretty impressive, having a kitchen, large table, several couches, many computers, and even a large TV with a Wii hooked up to it.
Me and Matt went back out afterwards, primarily in search of something vegetarian for me to eat, but also to explore the city that is new to us. We were looking for a supermarket down the street, but we missed it, and ended up wandering around for a while, until we spotted something familiar.
Having given up on the supermarket, I decided to get a pizza, as we were running out of time before dinner, and I was quite hungry from moving all day.
I ended up getting the "Cheese and Cheese". There were several strange things about it on the menu, firstly that it cost more on the english menu than the japanese menu, and secondly its name. Despite the fact that it sounds like a double cheese pizza, it is in fact a pizza with basil, onion, and tomato, and was actually quite delicious.
The pizza came in this handy, custom designed bag. It has a large square bottom, and is excellently suited to carrying a medium pizza.
While we were out, me and Matt wandered into a neat little shrine. We were only there for a couple of minutes before a gentleman came up and told us that the gates would be closing soon.
Kyoto is a more traditional city than Osaka; a lot of the houses nearby have those awesome japanese-style roofs, and in our short time here, we saw a man in a kimono with wooden sandals walking down the street.
This week is promising to be interesting. We have a new city to explore, and our rail passes allow us to visit other cities in the country, as well we have plans to meet up with one of Matt's friends in Nara tomorrow.
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