Day 3 in Tokyo - Kyoto

It is a wet and gloomy day in Tokyo. Meaning, our plan to zoom V direct to the train station in her stroller is shot down. The only good thing is, there is a sheltered underpass from our hotel all the way to the station. Problem, we have to use stairs from time to time. At one point, there was a ramp, and the surge of the oncoming traffic made us hesitate. In the end, we decided to just go ahead, after all we have a child in a stroller and a 20kg luggage to move all the way to the station. The moment we decided to move against the flow, the oncoming traffic kindly moved one side (it was about 2 person wide). Not only that, people also decided to follow behnd us, so I didn't feel so bad after all!

If we encountered escalator going up, we just went with the flow and V didn't mind being tilted back a little. We managed to locate the correct line (Chuo Rapid) and since we arrived in Tokyo ahead of our scheduled departure to Kyoto, I indulged in my favourite hobby @ Japan's train stations. Basically it's shopping for Bento to eat on the train. They can range from 800 yen to 10000 yen (i saw that back in 2006) but I was looking out for my favourite autumn bento set. It's a set that cost slightly less than 2000 yen and included smoked duck breast. That was the BEST ever bento set on the go I ever had. No such luck today, so I had to settle for "best" bento set of the lot, meaning ABSOLUTELY no fish. For V, I bought some egg sandwiches and some onigiri, since she can be quite picky. I wanted to buy even more, but the hubby stopped me. I think he is always amazed at the amount of food I want to and can consume while on the train.

V woke up shortly before the shinkansen ride to Kyoto - 3 of us were squeezed into a 2 seater and she wasn't very comfortable. After the ride started, I polished off my bento set and got V to eat her sandwich plus 1 onigiri (I helped myself to her leftovers). After a while, she got bored and got busy entertaining herself while we dozed off. The ride was quite uneventful and took slightly less than 3 hours (we were on the Hakari) - we managed to locate the right exit this time (I went to ask the train station personnel) and got to the hotel within 10 minutes. We would be staying at the New Miyako Hotel which is just right beside the JR train station. It's actually not very noisy and i would consider the noise as only normal traffic noise. [Note: Our side trip to Kyoto was through the JTB sunrise tour - for return shinkansen tickets and 2 night stay, we paid about 60,800 yen.]

We repacked our bags and headed out - we wanted to go to the Nishiki market. We got lost trying to find the city bus terminal, and spent maybe 25 minutes trying to find out way. The bus ride was about 15 minutes and we had no problem finding the market. I zoomed straight to the end of the Nishiki food street (right at where Daimaru is) and headed for the grilled oyster bar. I immediately place my orders (usually this place can be quite crowded) for 2 oysters and 1 scallops. While waiting for my orders (I ordered the same for the hubby although he said he wasn't very hungry), my immediate neighbour had this delicious looking bowl of mussels sent to them. After much inner wrestling between the need to have a slimmer waist line and the urge to taste the mussels, I eventually gave up and placed an order for it. The grilled oysters (180 yen each) came and it was really really really delicious. The saltiness was just right and I even finished the juice *yummmmmmm* As for the scallops (500 yen each), it just sweet. How should I describe it. The sweetness is from within the scallops and it was so fresh and just so .... perfect. As for the mussels, the mussels were fresh and plump, while some were quite small, but everyone of them were bursting with flavours. Yes, I also finished the soup they came in.

to be continued ...