Actually only #6 for me, but Teresa has been three times without me. Why so many you ask? Well, in our almost four years living in Japan we’ve been blessed with many visitors. Our kids and their significant others (multiple times), other family and dear friends. Even some that started out as casual friends and became closer due to their visit. While we love Yokohama, and venture into Tokyo occasionally, Kyoto is on the “must visit” list for every overseas guest. Kyoto is rich in history, incredibly scenic, and has a vibrant street scene with a mix of old and new people watching opportunities. There are two main “high” seasons in Kyoto, the Fall color and Sakura, or Cherry blossoms. We’ve just missed both on various occasions since it is difficult to time perfectly and the crowds at these times make booking travel and lodging a bit more difficult to manage.

This trip is at the beginning of the Sakura season so we’re not too optimistic about how many blossoms we’ll see. We planned this trip in advance and planned to play tour guide for my brother, his wife and their youngest son. They had travel complications and wound up in Austrailia! A kinda crazy story for another post.

We caught the Nozomi Shinkansen at Shin-Yokohama. Shin-Yokohama means “new” Yokohama and it is a station they had to build to accommodate the high speed tracks for the Shinkansen (AKA bullet train).

So now we racing along at over 150 MPH, and Mt. Fuji is in view! Do I have time to grab my camera? Not really so it has to be the iPhone.

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That wasn’t very satisfying.

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Much better. One of the hazards of shooting out of a train at 150 MPH is that most of the time you miss. However, if you keep shooting, sometimes you get lucky.

Caught the the nose of a speeding Shinkansen passing on the opposite track with Fuji just behind. Kinda cool. Ok so we’re almost there so I need to get this posted. Hopefully the Sakura will be blooming. In any case we should have a good time and enjoy some tasty meals. This will be our first time trying an airBnB in Kyoto so that should be interesting.

Til next time, may all of your travels be an adventure.