Shinkansen rules! (Bullet Train)

Today was a cool day!!

I'll tell you about the Shinkansen in a bit but first I have to tell you how I ended up on it in the first place.  So, Yesterday the group moved from our first XIV resort to the second one that we stayed at.  This one looks out onto Mt.Fuji.  Again it is an amazing place known for it's Onsen (hot spring).   Unfortunately there was a Typhoon (the same typhoon in my post "Typhoon on it's way") which damaged all of the hot springs and the pools that the hot springs feed.  When we arrived at the resort we were told that as of that day the Onsen were closed for repairs.  This is the main reason to go to a place like this and unluckily for us it was not to be.  So what to do??  Well, we spent the night there an then today everyone split up doing their own thing.  Martin, Kay and Maya went to the Anpanman (kids cartoon character) museum.  Satochan, Tachan and Toa went to a different kids museum and Kay's parents had friends visiting from Tokyo, who were very kind people by the way.  So,  I thought it was a good opportunity for me to ride the Shinkansen.

So, thanks to Kay and all of her help figuring out how I can get the train back to Kyoto, at noon I boarded a shuttle bus at the time share and caught the Shinkanshen from Mishima station.  It is really cool!!  You know when you are sitting on the sky train or any other train and you wish that it could go faster .........  well, this is exactly that!!  It travels at 300 km's an hour.  The ride is totally smooth and whisper quiet.  Door to door from the time share at Mt.Fuji near Tokyo to Kay's parents place in Kyoto took 4 hours and 45 mins and only 5 stops along the way.  Amazing!!  Totally worth the experience. The drive would be twice that time.   I'd recommend it to anyone who visits japan.

Also,  I went out to dinner with a friend, Maiko, and tried some different foods again.  Tonight I had beef tongue, pork fat, a small bite of raw beef with raw egg (not my favorite) and a few other things that I am not really sure what they were.  We ate at a Yakiniku restaurant which translates to "grilled meat".   You grill your dinner at the table.  My food experience in Japan has been fantastic!  I've had Horse, Stingray, raw beef liver, tongue, salmon eggs, sushi of course, and a few other things that I can't recall at the moment.  How lucky am I!!  Thanks Maiko!  After dinner we went to a really cool little bar.  It had space for 14 and an incredible atmosphere!

Kampai!