Yesterday we took the bullet train to Kyoto.  We forwarded one of our pieces of luggage ahead of time because it was oversized.  It only cost us $20 and it was here at the hotel in Kyoto when we arrived. 

The bullet trains arrive every ten minutes or so. You have to be standing right in front of the car you have reserved seats.  Only two cars do not have reserved seats.  I would not have taken my chances standing for two hours.  

We had seats that faced Mt. Fuji.  Of course, it was covered in clouds.  We could see where it was supposed to be located. 

I tried to take a bunch of pictures, but when you are traveling at 180 mph, it’s not easy.  

I did get a cool shot of the sunset!

Our hotel is right next to the subway station, so that is very convenient.  It was also near a steak restaurant, so we checked that out last night.  Very tasty. 

This morning we bought a day pass to use both the subway and bus for unlimited number of times.  It was supposed to rain all day long, but it didn’t impact our plans much. We headed to the Nishiki Market, which is outside, but covered.  

On the way, we stopped at Lindt. They had some very tasty truffles we had to try. 

I loved the market so much.  There were all kinds of neat little shops with pottery, chopsticks, etc, but what I really loved were the food stands. 

We stopped at a bakery and my husband bought a pretzel bagel that was so good.  

I finally got some amazing salmon sushi for lunch.  (I love salmon too much to eat anything else.)

My husband was appalled to see these tiny baby octopi for sale everywhere. I’m sure they are delicious (I have tried octopus before in Spain), but I just can’t imagine eating its head. 

There is a temple at the end of the market. My husband had to check it out.  It looks like a gong, but the sound was like wind chimes. 

We also sampled a Snoopy pancake with custard inside.  It was hot and delicious. 

I like to have a coffee after lunch. We stopped at this cute coffee and waffle shop, so I had to try a waffle.  Both were so good. 

As we were walking around today we saw a lot of people with these giant bags.  We thought they were swords or sticks, but they were actually bows.  We came upon this tournament and they all had the bows outside the building and I peeked through and saw targets. I didn’t see anyone actually aiming though.  

There were two gym-like areas where a lot of people were practicing martial arts. We saw these two young girls demonstrating a bunch of moves and I think they were working on a higher belt maybe? 

We stopped at another major shrine because my husband can’t get enough!  Nearby there were groups of teenagers who were performing dances with elaborate costumes in the rain!  It was so cool. 

We also went shopping at some hand crafted markets. The prices were not that bad.  We really wanted to buy a sword and have it shipped back to the U.S., but they were not shipping anything at all to the U.S.  We also looked around an antique store.  We found this amazing mask.  We are going to have to buy another piece of luggage!