Sunday was our last day in Kyoto and also the day we would travel to our final destination: Tokyo. We woke up, went downstairs to have breakfast and then packed our suitcases. It was then that I actually looked outside our window properly for the first time. XD We said goodbye to our room (number 8073) and checked out at the front desk. Since we wanted to take a train in the afternoon we still had some time left in Kyoto and we decided to visit the Kyoto Tower! I like visiting high building to oversee the city you’re in, so I was actually quite happy about that. ^^ We would also get a discount since our hotel had a special deal for the Kyoto Tower.
We left the hotel and took some outfit pictures.
We headed to the Shinkansen ticket office first. We wanted to make sure we both had seats again, so we wanted to make a reservation. Unfortunately, the window seats were all booked, but we had seats so it was ok.
We left the station and headed to the Kyoto Tower. The Tower is located on top of a hotel, but you can also reach it through the shopping centre next to it.
The ticket counter was at the back of one of the shopping centre floors, so we walked past several shops until we had found it. An old lady smiled at us and gave us our discounted tickets. Then she pointed us to the elevators. We went up and arrived at a well-lit hallway, where two statues of a young and old geisha were placed under the stairs. On our left side was the entrance to the elevators, where neatly dressed staff ladies were waiting for us. First, we were ushered to the side where we could have our picture taken with the incredibly weird and creepy but oddly funny Kyoto Tower mascot. We could purchase the picture after our Tower visit if we wanted, but for your viewing pleasure I will show it to you now (because yes, we bought it). XD
Then we were guided to the elevator and together with some other people we went all the way up. We arrived at the top and entered the round observatory part of the Tower. Since the observatory is circular, you could walk a full circle and see so much of the city! It was a very sunny and bright day, so you could see quite a lot.
We had barely set foot in the Tower or a staff lady approached me and asked if I wanted to participate in a survey. I needed to do it on my phone and use the local Wi-Fi and nice (and overwhelmed) as I am, I tried my best to get it working. Unfortunately, my phone didn’t want to cooperate and after an awkwardly long time of trying the lady and I gave up. x)
My mom and I enjoyed the view and using the binoculars. These binoculars were very strong and you could see very far away without loss of quality. And they were free! That was awesome. :3
The view all around was really amazing. We especially liked looking at the trains arriving and departing.
My mom spotted something interesting in the distance and we managed to find it with the binoculars. It turned out to be a giant statue called ‘the Ryozen Kannon’. It looked amazing and absolutely huge! If we ever return to Kyoto, I definitely want to see it. I had never heard or read about it before!
You can see a lot more of the view from the Kyoto Tower in the video at the end of this post.
After having seen every sight at least three times, it was time to leave. We walked down the stairs to the lower level of the observatory, where some catcher machines containing Kyoto Tower mascots plushies stood.
We took the elevator down, passing a distorting mirror (which was really funny). We arrived at the picture desk and although initially we weren’t planning on buying the picture we had taken with the mascot, I ended up doing it after all since it was just too funny. XD
Back at the shopping mall we decided to go look for the Daiso that was apparently in the building and soon found it. Initially my mom didn’t really want to, but when she heard how close the shop was and that they sold cute, cheap things she wanted to go anyway. Good thing, because she bought some cute things there. ^^ I feel like I never truly appreciated Daiso before now.
I also bought a package of mini matcha Oreos there, which I ate after our trip back home and they were so good! I will forever regret I didn’t buy more… x) I also bought a silly Hello Kitty key chain in another shop right before the exit of the shopping centre.
Then it was time to prepare for our last train trip. We returned to the hotel, picked up our luggage and walked to the station. My mom stayed with our suitcases while I went to the toilet and then together we went on our way to find the bento shop. When we had gone to Nara, we had passed an adorable shop filled with amazing bento boxes. Immediately we had decided to buy them for lunch on our way to Tokyo, so we walked to the ticket gate for the train to Nara. We showed our Japan Rail Passes at the desk, passed and then walked around the corner just for our bento boxes, haha!
The shop was filled with the most amazing and varying bento boxes. My mom and I ended up choosing the same one: it was the second most popular of the shop apparently! However, right at the moment we wanted to order, the lady behind the counter picked up the telephone that rang and never stopped talking! It took quite long, but she apologized deeply when she was done so it was ok. ^^
Carrying our bento boxes, Daiso purchases and suitcases we arrived at the Shinkansen tracks. We soon found the right track and a bench for my mom to sit on. It was sunny and quite warm at the platform and our train wouldn’t arrive for quite some time.
I proposed to buy us some drinks, so my mom stayed with our suitcases again while I went down the stairs again to buy some drinks. I was really hoping to find my favourite milk tea again, but unfortunately none of the shops close to our platform carried any. Of course, I could have just bought other drinks, but I felt very selfish and wanted my beloved milk tea. XD So I decided to leave the Shinkansen part of the station and went to find a 7/11. However, I couldn’t find any, so I went to ask. A kind station employee pointed me in the right direction and I recognized this part of the station: it was close to the hall that had led to the hotel of our previous trip. I decided to just walk on until I found the shop, but it turned out to be very far away from the tracks! I walked fast, found the shop and found my milk tea. ♥ I also searched for the lychee and salt drink my mom had liked so much, but unfortunately they didn’t have it so I settled with a lemon drink. I literally ran back to Shinkansen tracks, passed the ticket counter and soon found my mom again. I deliberately didn’t tell her how far I had gone. She probably would have been mad at me for going so far alone. But when she’s reading this, it’s been a bit of a longer time already so she won’t be mad anymore.
Right..? 8D
We sat down for a while. We were very early, so we had plenty of time. But finally, our shiny white train arrived.
We dragged our suitcases with us and soon found our seats. The whole coupé was empty except for one lady sitting at the window, next to our seats. The rest of the seats were pretty much empty. I was afraid the lady would close the window curtain so we wouldn’t see a thing, so hoping she would understand a bit of English I asked whether she was planning on doing so. For a moment she didn’t understand what I was saying, but she soon got it and immediately offered to switch seats! Oh my God this lady seriously was so nice! She sat in the aisle seat just for us and pointed us better places for our luggage instead of dragging our suitcases into the overhead compartments and we talked a lot during our journey. She told us where she lived (I think it was Odawara?) and that we should really come to visit her city someday. She was really interested in our trip and she was just so nice. ;_; She was amazing and now forever eternalized on my blog. Thank you kind train lady! ♥
Our train shot through Japan, heading for Tokyo. I believe it was in Sapporo or Nagoya suddenly a huge group of tourists joined our train, which explained all the empty reserved seats. ^^
Finally, we decided to open our bento boxes!
I was so ridiculously excited to eat this, you have no idea! XD And everything was so good! Every bite was a surprise every time, but everything tasted so good! Even the… slightly creepy-looking tentacle.
We drove past Mount Fuji (which was barely visible) and I spotted the ocean some times which was really cool. We drove on and on and people came and left, including the nice lady. By the time we came getting close to Tokyo, our train was quite empty again.
The sun was slowly setting when we arrived in Tokyo. After Shinagawa, we drove on to Tokyo station, where we got off. It was strange: we were back in Tokyo, the place we loved so much, but somehow we didn’t quite feel it yet. Perhaps because Tokyo station isn’t really a place we recognize or because of the fact that we were tired. Anyway, we went on our to the JR Yamanote line that we could ride for free for a couple more days.
The station was incredibly crowded and we had trouble finishing an elevator or escalator to the right platform. Finally we did and got on the next train. We were lucky to have seats and just sat and waited until we would finally arrive at Shinjuku. I looked around at all the advertisements. I remember one of a handsome man dressed as a wolf, standing close to a girl dressed in a red hood. It had gotten dark, so there was not that much to see outside through the window opposite us. It wasn’t until we got closer to Shibuya and Harajuku that I started to recognize places.
Finally we arrived at Shinjuku station and we left the building. We were back on the street that I had been on three times already, my mom two. I saw the over road bridge leading to MyLord. The orange clock in the distance. I wanted to cry, of happiness. But I couldn’t. I was too tired. XD I really wanted to be hyper and over enthusiastic, but I just couldn’t. This bothered me a lot this time, but I got over it.
We walked to our hotel and when we set foot in the lobby, my mom and I couldn’t help but smile at each other. That beautiful lobby, that we had missed so much. We went up to the desk and I spotted a sign saying something about this hotel being a recommendation or even winning a big prize at Tripadvisor.com. This was quite a good thing, because I could tell they had made some changes, including better speaking English staff!
A kind staff lady helped us and when she told us our room number, a little light turned on in my head. Room 1452..? That sounded so familiar… It was then that I realised this was the exact same room as my father and I had stayed in during our first trip! Isn’t that an amazing coincidence? ;_; The room my dad and I had loved so much, the room we had slept in, the room from where we had skyped. I thought it was almost magical! I care a lot about these things. ♥
We took our things with us upstairs and entered room 1452. Finally, our final hotel room.
I still cannot believe we stayed in that exact room. It’s just so surreal.
We decided to not have a heavy dinner, since we had had quite a big lunch. So my mom suggested to have some ice cream at Café Est! Est! in the shopping mall MyLord to celebrate our arrival in Tokyo. I cannot tell you enough how much I love that place and you will be able to find lots of stories about it in my previous Japan posts.
We went on our way to MyLord and decided to look around at the shops for a bit first. They had recently opened an Axes Femme there (love that shop ♥), so we wanted to take a look there! ^^
There was one customer that behaved really strangely, but we didn’t let it bother us. The shop had the most amazing things and yet I wasn’t really drawn to anything in particular. I did see a really nice long skirt and my mom fell in love with a vest. I tried it on first because she felt a bit embarrassed to do so, but it was already a bit snug on me and so warm! My mom and I can’t stand heat, not a good idea I felt a bit sorry for the shop girl though. She was so nice and accommodating. Sorry dear shop girl!
We also visited the F.i.n.t. shop. I had loved that brand during our last trip, but their winter collection wasn’t to my taste. My mom however fell in love with a bag (again) and considered buying it later during our trip. A beautiful Lolita walked into the store when we were there and she looked so pretty I decided to tell her so, but I believe she felt very awkward because of me! Whoops.
We visited a lot of amazing shops, like Candy Stripper and a great jewelry shop, but I have decided to keep it short this time. x) We went up to the floor where Café Est! Est! was located and asked for a table for two.
We had chosen our ice creams in the shop window already and found them on the menu after a while. I was hungry after all and ordered a coupe that was… bigger than I thought. Well, I should have expected it. It had two pieces of cake in it. ^^’
I should be ashamed, but… I am not. XD It was so good! The green cake was matcha flavoured. This flavour really grew on me during our trip.
I secretly also looked around for waiter-san, the handsome waiter we had spotted during one of our previous trips, but he wasn’t there. x)
After our delicious dinner/dessert, we headed back to our hotel. We bought two bread rolls at the bakery Hokuo. Back at the hotel room I took pictures of our purchases and then we went to sleep. It had been an exciting day and more exviting days were to come!
And to end this post with, here is the video I made about our adventures in Kyoto! I filmed a lot and tried to make the best videos I could about our trip. I hope you will like it! ♥
You can find day 9 from 6:25 until the end. Please take a look if you want! ♥
Thank you for reading! ~☆~
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