11/3 - Osaka to Kyoto

It's our first full day in Japan and we're already on the move.  We leave our luggage at the Hearton Hotel Shinsaibashi and grab a quick breakfast at Matsuya.  Matsuya is basically Japanese fast food where you buy a ticket at the machine for the food you want.  Present the ticket at your seat and you quickly get your food.  It's very cheap food, but pretty filling.  We were at the location just outside Loft department store and it was amazingly quiet at 8am.  Maybe everyone was at work already.  Then again, Shinsaibashi is more of a shopping area than a working area.

We took the subway up to Umeda to change to a JR train to Kyoto.  In the middle of transferring from the subway to the JR Umeda Station, we went topside to the Osaka Visitors Information Center.  We had to buy our Osaka Unlimited Pass before we forgot.  Just like the Thru Pass, we wouldn't be using it right away, but best to get it now so that we don't have to search for a vendor later.

The JR train was about a half-hour ride from Umeda in Osaka to Kyoto Station.  I tried catch some z's, but I don't sleep well on most moving vehicles.  If I can nap even a little, though, that's great.  Kyoto Station is a massive train station.  Not only do JR trains (regular and bullet trains) stop there, but so does the Kyoto Subway, the Kintetsu Line, and is home to the main bus terminal in the city.  It's a gigantic structure.  It's a modern gateway in a city famous for its ancient buildings.  While at the station, we also bought another pass, the Kyoto City Bus Pass.  We knew we would be using this one today.

The first thing we wanted to do was to head over to K's Kyoto House.  K's House is a hostel/guesthouse featured on hostelworld.com and in the Lonely Planet.  It was a 15-20 minute walk from Kyoto Station. There were lots of foreigners in the lobby coming and going.  Most were going out for the day.  We checked to see if we could drop off some extra belongings to lighten our load for the day.  We were lucky, our room was ready to store things, but the bed just hadn't been made.  Perfect.  We went up to our room and dropped off our stuff.  We were soon off to see our first sights of the trip.