Thanks to the magic of time zones we managed to live two days between waking up at 6:30 am in Kyoto on June 21st and walking through our front door in Seattle about 4:00 pm, also somehow on June 21st.
To make sure we had the seats we wanted for our transit between Kyoto and Tokyo – two together on the 2-seat side – we had purchased our shinkansen tickets on Friday. Even then we couldn’t find them in the 8:00 am hour of departure in a regular class car. So we sprung for the fancier “Green” car. Mr. Keeper of the Spreadsheet said it was nominally more and not a problem.
We checked out of the lovely Tune Stay hotel about 7:15 am to walk over to Kyoto Station and catch our 8:13 am train. Bless Scott for carrying one of my bags – the one stuffed with evidence of my Japan shopping weakness. We had free checked bags for the flights home, so I consoled myself with that.
Our experience in the Green car was fine and we were glad we tried it, but in the end we decided it wasn’t worth extra money in the future. We will know on future Japan trips to book seats further in advance so we can be picky about their location, but otherwise we are perfectly content in a standard reserved seat. It’s Japan… transit is always clean and comfortable!
Although we had been thoroughly happy with our cheaper (and honestly more convenient) coach bus transfer from the airport to central Tokyo back when we arrived, we wanted to try the Narita Express option since it is so popular. During pre-trip research I had found a tip to get off of the shinkansen from Kyoto in Shinagawa instead of Tokyo because walking to the Narita Express was shorter and easier in the smaller station. Excellent tip! The walks in Shinagawa Station from the shinkansen to the Narita Express ticket counter, and then to the Narita Express platform were very short. We waited about 20 minutes on the platform then found our reserved seats for the ~1 hour ride to the airport.
We are nerds and were several hours early for our flight, and had to wait a bit for bag check to open. Normally we are carry-on only type people, so this whole extra step was annoying. To pass the time we took turns browsing the shops outside security because we definitely needed to be buying more Japan things. After bag check and security we found our way to the Priority Pass lounge. I was a bit apprehensive because online reviews were horrible. But I was pleasantly surprised – we found seats without issue and there was a little food buffet. Free food and drinks in airports is one of the ways we justify that VentureX annual fee.
The flights home on Air Canada were fine. Nine hours to Vancouver + easy and stress-free connection + one hour to Seattle. I was thankful to not have a repeat of the layover stress from our outbound trip and that they didn’t pass out hundreds of tuna fish sandwiches again. Seattle transit home for $3 each, and then we walked into our home sweet home to love on our Zoe girl who we missed very, very much.
Yeah, didn’t really take any blog-worthy photos during our travel day(s), but a pic of Zoe is always worth a million others.
Kjar-ied Away 