Two wheels, three wheels, four wheels, engine powered, pedal powered, on-road, off-road; you name it, I've probably used it to get from A-to-B at some point on this trip.
Thankfully there are plenty of different methods to help me get from one city to another, and using a variety of them has made my trip, and experiences more memorable. Some of my methods of transportation have been more enjoyable than others although once I get to where I'm going safely I usually forget all the delays or strange people I've been sitting next to and give thanks that I've actually made it in one piece (even now I'm touching wood to make sure that happens for the continuation of my journey.)
Since learning to drive in 2003, I've been pretty much able to get myself around under my own steam as required. When I was younger I used to ride my bike pretty much everywhere, and it only seems to be when I come abroad that I tend to rely on public transport.
I honestly can't remember the last time I boarded a bus at home, and I've always been the kind of person that would rather walk than pay a taxi fare.
Being on a different continent I've had to rely on public transportation an awful lot more from the early part of my journey in the Philippines when I had to get taxis everywhere to being in China, Taiwan and Japan where I've used a combination of trains and subways to help me get from place-to-place.
I've probably mentioned the fares I've been paying in different countries, and they are significantly lower than you'd probably pay for the same journey in England - and perhaps most places in Europe.
I realise that the cost of living is less expensive over here, but when I think back to how much I've paid to ride the metro system or hire a bicycle / moped for the day, the fees are a third or even a quarter what'd you'd have to stomach back in England.
Obviously back home I have more of an option to avoid paying for things like taxis and trains as I can usually just drive everywhere, but then you have the added cost of fuel and parking, plus the overall cost of buying a car which is perhaps the single biggest expense in people's lives.
When I was at university in London, I survived for two of the three years without a car, and in my third year I experienced both the ups (an ability to go shopping whenever I needed to without having to take the bus) and the downs (could rarely ever find anywhere to park and also had my car broken into) of living in a large city.
The different methods which people use to get around the cities I've visited have varied significantly from place-to-place and country-to-country. I feel that like myself, most rely heavily on public transport which probably explains why it's so affordable and in the later countries I've been to, so extensive, punctual and basically everything that British transport is not considered to be!
Having spent four months at the mercy of others ferrying me round from one place to another I actually look strangely forward to getting back in a car, although I admit that it has been nice not to have dealt with issues like congestion, weather conditions and other drivers which can often make it an unenjoyable experience.
No doubts, before I leave there will be transport in other cities to experience, especially when I need to travel a significant distance...
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There's nothing like waking up in the morning and totally forgetting where you are.
With all that I have going on I feel like my brain just totally shuts down at night to try and stop it from overloading with information about travels plans, exchange rates and hotels bookings. I rarely experience dreams I can remember and aside from the last couple of nights it's very rare that I will actually stir during the night or wake up before my alarm goes off.
When the dulcet tones of my phone did start going off at 8.30 this morning, I tried to roll over and turn it off but whacked my leg on the side of the capsule that I then remembered I was sleeping in! I can't blame the width of the bed space either, just my inability to think straight that early in the morning.
I promised I would divulge more information on last night's accomodation so let's start by covering everything capsule related shall we....?!
As I mentioned, these types of hotel are all over Japan, and I believe they are starting to spread to other parts of the world. A couple of people have mentioned that they now exist in airports, although I can't say that I have seen any yet.
Although it would have been an extremely economical option, I haven't really considered hotels to be a viable option for me, for many reasons. Part of it is that I enjoy my own personal space, and knowing that I can just shut the door in an evening and spent time in my own company is often some thing that stops me from going crazy.
I've had a couple of experiences of guest houses on this trip - with varying degrees of success, and they were good at defining the boundaries of that comfort zone I discussed yesterday. Since Yogyakarta in Indonesia I don't think I've stayed in anything but a hotel in a private room, and I feel like if that option is available, and not ridiculously expensive then it's the one which I will pick.
Choosing the right place to stay has become an important thing to me, and I feel like that my accomodation has the ability to make or break an experience. There is no doubt to me that if I'd have stayed in better locations in a couple of cities that I'd visited than I'd maybe look back on them a bit more favourably had I stayed somewhere different - that's how essential it is to me.
For one night however, I was willing to alter my preferences and make the move to a capsule hotel for the sake of an experience.
Having got there in the rain last night I was given a key for a shoe locker and also a storage locker which was in the same location as the wash-room.
I'll explain a bit how it was set up so that it's less confusing and you get a picture of the layout. The reception of the hotel alongside the male washing facilities were on the third floor, with a lounge area and restaurant just above. Floors six through eight were the locations of the actual capsules themselves, with the top floor reserved for women.
I wasn't sure how many capsules there were, but the first thing I did was head up towards my numbered capsule where it was a bizarre experience to just walk in and see the numbered cubes all over the place:
One thing I didn't realise are that the cubes themselves are open at the front, I thought that they had a glass door or something which you could close, but I noticed very quickly that there were curtains pulled down in some of the capsules which essentially meant that people were sleeping. Naturally you could sleep with the curtain up if you wanted to, but there were only a few people who selected to be in their personal area and have the curtain up.
Although it wasn't exactly spacious, the capsule itself was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be, and unless you have serious issues with claustrophobia then it was comfortable enough. The only thing about it is that it did start to get warm pretty much straight away, so spending an extended length of time in there probably wasn't ideal.
Inside the capsule itself you get free wi-fi service and in a little control panel next to where you sleep there are the controls for the lights, in-capsule TV (yes, it actually has a TV), an alarm and a plug socket. If it's just somewhere for you to get your head down then it's pretty much ideal - and I guess that's the idea of them. It's just for a short term stay for one or two nights which has slightly more privacy than a dorm room in a hostel.
The lounge room itself was pretty crowded with lots of people sitting in their using their phones and laptops, and I saw that pretty much everyone in there had on a blue robe, which I later discovered were kept inside my locker along with a towel and a wash cloth:
The bathroom facilities themselves were pretty modern although shared entirely by the gender population. I think it was in the style of a traditional bath house here in Japan with a marble room where you could take a shower and then relax in either a bath, a sauna, or if you're entirely crazy then could go in the cold tub. Pretty much everything you needed in terms of toiletries were provided, and to say that it was a public place, that was extremely useful.
They had toothbrushes, combs, hair driers and pretty much every male manicure product you could require, and I guess this is one of the benefits of staying there that people find as apart from a change of clothes they really needn't bring anything else with them.
Heading back to my room after sampling the showering facilities I stayed in my capsule seeing if there was anything on TV before eventually heading off to sleep. As I mentioned, the heat was a little issue, although I'll admit that I did wake up in the middle of the night feeling quite cold and I had to quickly unravel the duvet cover I'd been using as an extra pillow in order to get rid of the goosebumps.
Surprisingly with all those people around it was actually pretty quiet, and although you could hear the odd muffled TV there really wasn't anything which prevented me from getting a long and decent night's sleep.
This morning I woke up about 6am with quite a few people's alarms clearly set for that time, but I nodded back off and was only awoken by the sound of my own alarm going off.
A stay in the capsule hotel aligned perfectly with my departure from Tokyo, although I was well-prepared for once having packed my bag on Monday night so it wasn't something I'd have to sort out in what was an extremely crowded locker room.
I guess the majority of people had checked out reasonably early as the shower facilities were actually quieter than they were last night, but as I was leaving there were a number of people preparing themselves to depart.
Another reason why a capsule hotel isn't a viable option for a long term stay is that they capsules are cleaned every day between 10am and 4pm meaning that you have to leave (not the building but at least the capsule) as when you come back the next night you might not be sleeping in the same capsule. This means you have to surrender your locker key and therefore put your luggage where I left mine last night.
I just really don't think I could be doing with the hassle every day, and not that I spread out and unpack at each hotel I get to, but I do enjoy the fact that I don't have to pack everything up until the day before I am leaving.
Once I'd got everything together I headed towards the train station in order to travel to the next destination on my Japanese journey which is Kyoto.
I had to contend with the tail end of the rush-hour again this morning as I ploughed through the station with my rucksacks on. One of the many issues with staying close to such a massive station like Shinjuku is that rather than all the lines being contained in one place, they are spread out all over the place. Being slightly pressed for time (my Kyoto train was at 11am) I pretty much found the first train that I knew would be going towards Tokyo station and boarded it, even though it wasn't the most efficient, and was perhaps the busiest one I could have selected (remember that Yamanote Line service I avoided yesterday, well that's the one I got on and it was totally crammed!)
There were several options available to me in order to get to Kyoto, but I decided to go with the quickest and most efficient which was to use the Shinkansen train service.
When I was younger I used to have a set of top trumps with trains on them, and I'm pretty sure that the Shinkansen is effectively the Japanese bullet train which used to have all the best stats! What would have taken me eight or nine hours by bus was set to take me less than three by train.
Once I got off at Tokyo Station, I was greatful that the Shinkansen Line was pretty close to where I needed to be, although I had a slight issue when my ticket wouldn't let me through the gate.
Apparently all that effort to buy a ticket on my journey out the other day was in vain as I didn't buy the right one, but the man at the ticket office let me through the gate and told me that I could arrange to pay the rest of the fare when I got to the other end as it was pretty much two minutes before my train was leaving.
Unlike the Maglev train in Beijing there wasn't a speedometer up for me to see how fast the train was going, but I'd go with "really fast" as we sped through the countryside following two brief early stops.
On the opposite side of the train to where I was sitting the passengers got a great view out of the window of Mt. Fuji which was then given to people on the side where I was sitting as the train tilted - it was almost as if they'd done it on purpose.
It's snow covered tip looked just as impressive closer up than I'd been before as it had always done in pictures and although it only stuck around for a minute or two, pretty much everyone had their eyes glued to the window for those 120 seconds.
One thing I do have to mention, speaking of Mt. Fuji, is that on the train towards Tokyo Station there was an alert on the video screen which said that Tokaido Shinsaken services (the train I was boarding) were suffering a partial suspension because of an earthquake.
At the point of writing this I haven't have time to look it up yet, but that did worry me slightly as I know that this area of the world has been hit by earthquakes before - the last of them being an extremely fatal one in 2012 when an earthquake caused a tsunami and devestated the region around Fukishima Nuclear Powerplant.
My heart sank for a while after reading it, and after I finish typing this up I will definitely be doing to research to find out what happened and where.
Once I arrived in Kyoto I had to work out where to go to pay the extra fare, and then also figure out how I was going to get to my hotel. I'd read on the hotel's website that it was only 100m away from the metro exit, and once I'd paid the fare I owed for not getting a proper ticket I set about making my way out of the correct exit.
Perhaps because I looked it up the day before yesterday, and didn't check it once again (although I did take a screenshot) I struggled massively to find my hotel. I could see from the picture that I'd taken that it was very close to the metro, but after walking in pretty much every single direction, I figured that there was something I wasn't doing correctly. I went into a nearby hotel and asked if they knew where it was, and thankfully they pointed me in the right direction.
Turns out that I had come out of the right exit and was close to where I needed to be, but I had to walk down a little alley to get to the other of the station building and around a car park entrance which was blocked my direct line of sight to the hotel.
Once I got there I had to wait for my room to be cleaned as it was still before 3pm which is the actual correct time for check-in, but that was OK because not a morsel of food had passed through my lips this morning, and the bottle of 'Mount Fuji' water I had on the train really wasn't going to cut it.
I headed back to the hotel once I'd eaten, feeling much more refreshed and ready for some sightseeing. First though I wanted to spend some time getting familiar with my room and also figure out what I was going to do this afternoon.
The room I'm staying in for the duration of my stay in Kyoto is also a little different, although not as drastically different as going from a hotel room to a capsule as I had to do last night. For convenience reasons, and also because I though it'd be interesting, I booked to stay in what's known as a 'Cabin Hotel'. Not sure if these have quite made it across the pacific to any other part of the world as yet, but it's pretty similar to a capsule, but instead of having a microwave oven space, you effectively have your own room, but it's in a shared compound.
Like the capsules last night which are all side by side, the cabin rooms are next to one another and separated only by some thin walls. It reminds me strangely of a theatre stage.
The cabins themselves are brand new and they have pretty much every you'd need in them. The bed lines up in front of a TV and as in the capsule there's a panel on the wall where you can make everything work. Thankfully I spotted that there is at least some control over the temperature of the room which means if it starts to get a little warm later on I'll be able to do something about it.
I guess the only difference between this and a guest house is a lockable door, and the size of the room obviously isn't massive, but I feel like it has an appropriate level of privacy whilst also allowing me to be able to stay in a space that's a little larger than the draws in a mortuary. We'll see how it goes anyway:
Once I'd got done testing everything in my room - including the headphone set attached to the wall which allows you to watch TV without disturbing other people - I decided to venture out into the world to see what Kyoto had to offer.
I've read good things about the city, but one thing I did spot when making my hotel reservations is that everything is pretty spread out, and that caused me a few issues when deciding where to stay. I knew that I wanted to be located pretty close to the station, and Kyoto Central is only two stops away. I also figure that being within close proximity to the main station means that if I do need to go off somewhere then I'll have a good point of access to all the different places in the city. I took a quick peak, and like Tokyo, Kyoto has tons of JR Trains which go off in different directions, and I'd read on a blog somewhere that the bus is pretty vital in terms of accessing certain parts of the city.
Standing out from the rest of the relatively low (by Japense standards at least) buildings was a tall observation tower which was headed in the direction of the Kyoto main station so I decided to walk in that direction and hopefully get a look at the tower and see what was going on around there. I figured that was likely to be hive of activity considering that it's right at the heart of the city.
It took me about twenty minutes to walk there, and on the way past I walked into the grounds of an impressive looking temple which had just closed its doors to visitors for the way. Hongan-ji is one of the main ones here in the city, but it looks like it has beautiful gardens surrounding it despite some reconstruction work which looks like it is being done to the building itself:
From around this area the Kyoto Tower started to come to prominence, and I noticed that it is actually attached to a hotel which is what helps it stand out so much:
I thought about going up to the observation deck to survey the surroundings, but I'd read that there was an almost equally good, and free way to do this just inside the station.
I wanted to go into the station itself and have a look to see if there were any leaflets of maps about Kyoto and its surrounding area.
The station was an absolute hive of activity what with it being rush-hour just as I got there. There is an underground shopping centre just near the station as well as two shopping centres inside it and a number of restaurants.
Had I not known there was an interesting facet inside the Iseton Department Store, I probably would have wandered in there to take a look anyway, but from what I'd read online there was a way to get a good view out over the city from the 10th floor so I set about heading there.
Most of the time when I'm heading up and down the paths inside escalators I find it a bit of a nightmare to know where to go, and I guess part of them moving the way up and down all over the place is so that people look around. The Iseton was obviously pretty confident that people would do that anyway, because it was set out with up and down escalators running through the middle of the whole thing which were side by side, so all you had to do was take a few steps forward every now and then and you'd be on your way up. It was an interesting idea, and made the whole thing seem like staircase - for me it was perfect because it was easy to navigate, but I guess they miss out on people stumbling their way into buying something as they look for the escalator.
Once I got to the 10th floor it was a bit of a mission to find the sky-walk - the signs suddenly disappeared which is never a good thing - but I eventually found where I was going by going around the side of some restaurants which brought me out on the skywalk:
It wasn't hugely impressive at first as it looked like just a long corridor with no view, but every now and then there'd be a little window which would allow you to look out of it, and all of these happened to be facing towards Kyoto Tower:
You also got a great view of the hills surrounding Kyoto itself:
I walked as far as I could to the end of the sky-walk before taking a large elevator down to a miniature garden which was decked out almost like a wedding venue:
From there I looked across to the opposite side of the station where I'd come from, and it seemed there was an elevator over there that would give me a great view the opposite way.
On the way down towards the station, I caught a beautiful view of the tower before I was heading through the station and back up escalators the other side:
As well as the escalators were some steps which were lit up in brightly coloured lights....
and when I came down later they looked even more impressive.
Heading up to the top of an escalators I came to a bit of a viewing platform and a lovely roof garden:
You got a spectacular view from all angles over the city including seeing how I arrived on the Shinkansen tracks in the distance, and for some reason there's also a helipad on the roof which provided the platform for a good view as well.
I sat on a bench at the top of the roof garden for quite a while reading my book and barely noticed that the sun had entirely disappeared by the time I read the last few pages and turned off my Kindle.
On my way down, I took the reverse route through the station and went back up to the other side where you could now see the tower lit up, and the streets below it also starting to twinkle:
I carried on walking this time and got to the opposite side of the station where out of the window I could now the the LED's on the stairs making up different patterns and just generally brightening up the place:
To get back I rode a different set of escalators which did zig-zag round and round the shops before coming out of the station and planning to head back to my hotel via a restaurant where I could eat dinner.
Headed back towards the main road which Kyoto Station lines on I noticed a big department store which I fancied a walk through. I was mainly inspired to do so to check if they had a book store where I could replace the one I'd just finished reading, but naturally I walked up and down every floor looking at pretty much everything available.
The bottom few floors were technology where there was everything you could every imagine from cameras to exercise machines to televisions, and then as you went up it turned to clothes, toys and on the very top floor there were some restaurants. I had a look to see if there was anything which took my fancy, but there wasn't so after about an hour or exploring the whole thing I returnend to the bottom completely ready to eat.
On the way to the station I'd noticed that there were a few restaurants in a row between Kyoto Station and Shijo Station which is the closest one to where I'm staying.
There was a restaurant which served curry that I'd seen in Tokyo last night that I thought looked pretty nice and I stepped in there to see what they served.
Like most of the restaurants in Japan that I've been to, it was essentially a massive bar with tables on and it was pretty easy to order as the menu had English on it as well.
I had a really nice and very filling pork curry which cost me about £4 so was an absolute bargain for once I've found that I don't need to buy myself a snack to hold me over to breakfast. Might have to go there again tomorrow as it did the trick.
I'm going to spend a bit of time this evening working out what to do with my two days here in Kyoto. It always seems a little confusing, but this city in particularly seems to be difficult to figure out what to do as everything is in different places, and it might mean that I'm not entirely capable of meshing everything together quite so easily as I found I was able to do in Tokyo.
Aerosmith and Run DMC (1986)
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