On to Tokyo

 

Shinkansen aka the bullet train.

February 15, 2026

It was time to move on to our next location, so we packed up and said goodbye to Kyoto. We left at 9:00 am to head to the station. It is a bit of a challenge to stay together as a group navigating the subway and train stations.

We periodically stop to take a headcount to make sure no one is left behind.

There is no eating or drinking allowed on most trains and subways in Japan. That is not true of the Shinkansen. They have several train station bento box stores to shop for your meal. We were traveling over the lunch hour, so we looked around. Karl really liked the Shinkansen bentos. But opted for something different in the end. Most of the choices are cold, but they have some options that come with a device under the box that will heat up your food if you want a hot meal.

We got a view of Mt. Fuji poking through the clouds along the route.

Karl learning how to open his salmon onigiri properly. The first one he tried didn't work out correctly. When he opened it, the nori was separated from the rice and he had to rewrap it. Now he knows, if he can remember how he did it!

We made our way from Tokyo station to the subway and on to Sophia University, where the students met their home stay families. They will spend three weeks with them, but meet up for class several mornings a week. We moved on to our Airbnb and got settled in.

In our taxi on the way to our Airbnb.

Our tiny oven in our apartment.

A very small dishwasher too!

We had our first tonkatsu for dinner. It came with miso soup, cabbage and two sides of your choice. I got potato and sunomono salad. And we have been served ice water in almost every restaurant we have eaten in. That rarely happened on our previous trips.