Kyoto, Japan - 30th January 2023

Today was to be a highlight of our trip, especially for Christine, who was raised by a father with a great interest in trains. We headed to Kyoto station determined to ride on the Shinkansen, Japan's bullet train, famous throughout the world.

The first challenge was buying tickets. We duly purchased our tickets to Osaka from the bilingual ticket machine and attempted to pass through the electronic barrier to reach the separate Shinkansen platforms. The barrier refused to open and we were perplexed until somebody was found who could explain to us in English that there was a supplementary ticket you had to purchase in order to ride the Shinkansen.

We returned to the ticket office, this time opting for a human and managed to explain that we already had our tickets, and just needed the additional supplement ticket. Finally, we were through the barrier and standing on the platform awaiting our ride.

As the arrival of our train drew closer - the service passed through Kyoto about every fifteen minutes - Christine became as excited as a small child in a sweet shop.

Firstly, we had to determine which pre-marked line to join on the incredibly lengthy platform. There were separate queues for those with reserved seating and those without.

Everything on the platform gleamed with polish and a smartly dressed official appeared, immaculate in his white gloves, to greet our train. Suddenly it glided almost silently into the platform, stopping with our door precisely located at the head of the line we had joined.

Time for disembarking and boarding the train at stations is kept to a minimum, aided by the organised form it, like everything in Japan, took.

Quickly, we took our seats and the train slid out of the station, accelerating dramatically and silently to what we approximated to be around seventy miles per hour before we were even outside the extremely long station building.

We had never travelled so quickly in a land vehicle before and even video couldn't do justice to the speed at which our surroundings flew by. The trip to Osaka took only twelve minutes instead of around forty-five by normal train. Christine struggled to keep her squeals of delight to herself through the entire trip, while for the other passengers aboard this was just a normal part of life. How great it would be to have a fast, clean, reliable and affordable train service in our own country.

We had barely caught our breath before we were disembarking in Osaka and changing platforms to await a return train to Kyoto.

Apparently we confused the ticket barrier again by wanting to spend only a few minutes at Osaka station before returning. It stubbornly refused to allow us access to the platform. Once a human had managed to override its bafflement, we were quickly climbing aboard a Shinkansen train bound for Tokyo.

Squeals were still being stifled when we reached Kyoto twelve minutes later.

Kyoto Station Building

Back in Kyoto we explored the station, which consisted of a modern, steel architectural wonder of fifteeen floors containing not only platforms for journeys but also a shopping arcade, the JR department store, food courts and futuristic glass and steel skyway.

Unlike on our previous visit where the rooftop observation deck was closed due to the slippery snow, this time we could take the escalators right tthe top to enjoy the city views.

Kyoto station

Let's take the escalators.

View of Kyoto tower from the station.

On leaving the station we sought out Kyosen Do, a shop which sold a colourful array of paper fans and then, by contrast, Yodobashi Camera, an electronics superstore of astounding proportions.