July 08 - Changing the Setting (Arrival at Kyoto)

In the short time spent here in Japan I've been able to notice a few 'habits' or 'trends' of japanese people. I already noticed one when I got into the first train from Narita to Tokyo. Every second japanese person on the train was doiing something with their mobile phone. Every nine in ten mobile phones were of the type where you have to flip up the screen. Take a look at the pictures if you don't understand my explanation (I probably wouldn't understand it either...). AND, last but not least, every second mobile phone was pink. No, I'm not talking about some girl's mobile phone. Lot's of guys have pink phones too.
Seriously, it really catches one's attention to see all sorts of different people sitting in the train staring at their phones.

Also, coming to today's trip, even though Japan is famous for the really strict rules about behauviour in trains and buses, and for sticking to traditions, you can notice how the youth somehow opposes to this.
We got on the train from Kawaguchiko to Otsuki in order to get to Tokyo from there and then take the Shinkansen. This line is apparently also used by students to get from their homes to a school in a nearby larger town.
While most of them were really quiet throughout the whole way, some of them seemed to try to imitate the american trends you see on MTV and the like. They wore their pants way below their waist, had some music playing over the loudspeakers of their phones, and acted like the typical rappers you see on TV. I mean, back in Madrid, this is usual. But I really didn't expect to see it here. This, added to the fact that there are McDonnalds, KFC, etc. all over Japan might mean that some sort of relly fast change in the Japanese culture is happening. Of course, the most simple and thus probable explanation is still: They're teenagers, rebellion is a must at that age.

The Shinkansen to Kyoto was really cool. Just one recomendation: TAKE SOME FOOD WITH YOU. We had woken up at 6:30 in the morning. At seven, we had breakfast. I can assure you, at 14:00 I was hungry as hell. Actually, you can buy food on the train, and we could have bought something in Tokyo Station, but the prices were way out of our limits. Luckily we found a small shop near the station where we could buy some bento boxes at an affordable price.

The hotel is great, apart from one thing. What's the one thing you really don't want to do when you've woken up early, you've sit in a train for several hours and then had to walk around in the heat with 15kg on your back? Exactly, walk up stairs. Well guess what, we got a room in the top floor (5th) and there was no elevator... Anyway, it turned out that that last floor was some sort of spanish colony or something. Next door we have a really large group of spanish tourists. Actually, when I come to think of it, there were spanish tourists in every hostel we've been to :D .

We stayed at the hostel for some time in order to rest (we really owe something to the inventor of the air conditioner!), and used the last few minutes of daylight to visit the Toji temple.

You really notice some change between Tokyo and Kyoto. Let's just say the scale is smaller. The buildings are smaller, and there are more smaller shops. The streets are not as crowded, and the only recurrent loud sounds are those signalling the green light for pedestrians at the intersections.

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At the train from Kawaguchiko to Otsuki
View from the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto
Information column in front of Kyoto station
View from our hostel room
Toji temple in Kyoto