Back log 2

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Rail to Kyoto

Ok, so we are on the shinkansen right now. Also known as the bullet train. I’ve always heard about how efficent the japanese rail system can be, and even though we’ve only gone on 3 trains so far, I think I agree with them. Even though we’re forigeners and have no idea where an ything is, we haven’t had any problems so far other then locating the office where we turned in our rail pass exchange orders. That one was my fault, I had us go to the wrong station from the hotel. But the ticket to the correct station was only 120 yen ($1.37) each. And while we were waiting for the train we discovered two things that I was pleased with. Thing one was actually a mistake that dad made. He was trying to get some coffee from a vending machine and what he got wasn’t coffee at all. Ya know what it was? HOT CHOCOLATE! That’s right, this place has hot chocolate in a can from a vending machine. And whats more, it was actually really tasty. This might become a regular thing for me. The second thing we found was actually not a thing, it was a person. We met a guy named Keith who was also waiting for the same train as us. Despite the name, he was actually a Mylasian. Apparently he works in high fashion and travels often. We got to talk to him for about 20 minutes while we waited for the train, as well as while we were on the train. He tipped us off to some ettiqute that we weren’t aware of, and gave us a coupple recommendations on where to go. We were talking in english which was nice. Many japanese people speek english, but so far, it seems like most of them have trouble understanding it at the normal american speaking rate. Or at least how fast we talk in california. Which is understandable. I find the speed native japanese speekers talk in to be incomprehensible. Before we parted with Keith, who was headed back home today, Keith and Dad exchanged buisness cards. Apparently Keith also makes regular trips to San Fransisco. So perhaps we’ll get to see him again in the future. He said he sometimes likes to go into marin to take it easy. I figure mabey at some point we could show him around. At any rate, we have our rail passes now. So that means free unlimited train use for the next two weeks. This includes the bullet trains. At about $500 each, it seems a bit expensive at frist. But considering these passes also include the bullet train, (like I’m on now) where the tickets are around $130 each, it’s a pretty good deal. We essentally have free transit to anywhere in the country. Well, according to my ticket, we only have about 15 mintues left on this ride, so I’m gona pack it up. I wish it wasn’t so cloudy though. You can only see for a coupple miles and it doesn’t make for good pictures. Of course that didn’t stop me from taking a bunch. Anyway take it easy everybody. Jya!