After being dropped off by our host families at the train
station, we got on a couple different trains, but the most exciting one was the
Shinkansen, with the literal translation meaning ‘bullet train’. This amazing
transportation system can travel up to 200 miles per hour! It usually leaves
and arrives at train stations on time and to the very second. The first train
began service on October 1st, 1964 for the Tokyo Olympics and went between
Osaka and Tokyo. In 1975, Japan expanded this system to include Hiroshima and
Fukuoka.
During the train ride, we got a lot of really cool
pictures only some of the time because it was moving so fast. What I loved
about it though was when we passed another train. The sound and sight of the
train next to us happened so quick it surprised me most of the time. I really
can’t wait until the United States develops their bullet train.
Our destination for the evening was Kyoto, which is a
city with some pretty awesome history. Kyoto is in the Kyoto Prefecture of
Japan and was actually a former imperial city from 794 BCE until 1869. It was
also one city that was considered to be attacked by the atomic bomb in World
War II. As a result of not being targeted, there are many buildings that have
been designated as Unesco World Heritage sites in Kyoto. This city contains
more than 2,000 shrines and temples and has over 30 million tourists annually.
Once we got off the train, we traveled to three different
attractions. We saw the Golden Pavilion, Nijo Castle and the Kiyomizu Temple.
You’ll learn more about those places in later posts, but what I will say is
that it was really cool getting to see so much of ancient Japan in one place.
Kyoto is to Japan what Xi’an is to China, the one place that holds pretty much
all of the culture of the country.
After the temple, we traveled to the hotel and got the
rest of the night to ourselves. A group of friends and I decided to walk to the
Nintendo building, seeing as it was only twenty minutes away. On our walk, we
found an Udon noodle place and it was de-li-cious!! We finished there and kept
walking toward our final destination. It was so cool seeing the headquarters of
the company that has the number one selling game franchise in the world (It’s
Mario if you didn’t know). Once we finished there, we took another route back
and found the mall right behind our hotel and wandered around there for a bit.
I went to bed after the mall
since it was such a long day. Kyoto is a wonderful city with many cultural
aspects that I would just love to explore. The view from the temple was amazing
and getting to see only three of the cultural heritage sites was not enough for
me. I would have loved another day or afternoon even to just explore that
amazing and historical city. But, as it would happen, we have more places to
explore with just as much culture and wonder waiting to be discovered.
-Alex
Valentine
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