On the 28th we left Kyoto and headed to Tokyo. By Shinkansen it would cost 12,710 yen and take about two hours and 20 minutes. However, we took local trains and it took us about 8 hours and 40 minutes. We took advantage of the Seishun 18 Kippu.
The Seishun 18 Kippu costs 11,500 yen and it's good for 5 days of unlimited travel on JR local (non-express, non-shinkansen) trains. Each day you use it, it gets stamped like this:
Two people can use it in the same day. It just counts as two days then. It took a long time to travel between Kyoto and Tokyo, but it was really cheap. It was only 2,300 yen!
Without the ticket, the local train ticket costs 7,980 yen, which I don't think would be worth it since it takes so long. Normally I think the shinkansen would make more sense. The Seishun 18 Kippu is only available at certain times. Luckily, Christmas Break was one of those times! :)
You can find more information here: Seishun 18 Kippu
It was overall a pretty boring day, but it wasn't horrible. We had to switch 5 times so our trip was split up a lot. It helped it not seem quite so long.
At one station I bought this Strawberry Oreo bar.
I also bought an Aquarius (sorta like Gatorade) out of a vending machine. I put in a 1000 yen bill and the machine ate it! I wanted to hurry onto the train so that's why I put in 1000 instead of counting out change. I really needed a drink though so then I threw a handful of coins into the machine and got a drink. It was a 1150 yen drink. :(
That's the first problem I've had with a vending machine in Japan. In the US I would never ever put a 10 dollar bill into a vending machine. I trusted Japanese vending machines a lot more. Not anymore. :( Well, I guess I still trust them a lot, but not as much as before.
Wednesday, December 29th
The next day we went to several places in Tokyo. We went to Shibuya, Ginza, Harajuku, and Roppongi.
Of course I had to take a picture of a Darth Vader cell phone ad. There are many different ones.
Harajuku was crazy and crowded like usual. We ate crepes. :)
shopping mall in Roppongi
view of Tokyo Tower from Roppongi
Mori Tower in Roppongi
We ended the day in Akihabara and went into several arcades. We played a few games (I played DDR again... yay!) but didn't find the basketball game that Jonathan was looking for. He played this basketball game in Kyoto and kind of got addicted to it. It's just like the normal basketball game in arcades in the US, but if you do well enough you advance to another level.
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