Faster than a speeding train

I'm so proud of Xiomara. She woke up this morning and decided to go to Japan's Edo era capital, Kyoto, without any plans. Just get dressed, grab a couple of our belongings, and go. We'll figure it out. What does she do on the three hour Super-express train ride? She starts planning out our trip. She's so cute. She can't stand not having plans. Detailed. Annotated. Plans. Baby steps with this morning's spontaneity, I know.

Did I mention we are on a bullet train? 

(Vid: as the world just passes us by)

:D Check two things off my bucket list: take a train trip (check), and go 200+ mph on land (check, check). Even if we just turned around and went back to Tokyo, I'd be pretty happy.

Getting on this train was not hard: we have a 7 day JR pass that allows us to walk through the gates and straight on to any of Japan Railway's trains (JR lines, not subways). For most passenger cars on the super train, you would need to reserve seats (much like an airplane). Since we just decided to go about an hour ago, no two adjoining seats were open. The first 5 cars are sort of like general admission seating (like flying on Southwest Airlines) for non-reserved ticket holders. The down side is that these cars are at the faaaaar end of a very, very long train...

(Pic: Outside of the Shinkansen Superexpress around car #4)

...which led to our first big issue this morning when we realized we were at the wrong track for the 505 to Kyoto. Hyperdia online told us track 18, the train pilot (I'm calling them pilots, not engineers) directed us to track 14, on completely different platform, and departing in 8 minutes. I don't know exactly how long this express train is (edit: 16 passenger cars), but we ran the entire length of it (back to front) after running down stairs, across the terminal, up stairs, and down the platform to board just in time.

(Pic: we got here faster than a speeding bullet)

This particular train is the Shinkansen (literally "new rail") line bound for Shin-Otaka which just happens to stop at Kyoto. Nothing on any of the station signs mentioned Kyoto directly and Xiom freaked out a little (okay, maybe a lot) as the train was already pulling away. Nagoya was the city on the signs, so I tried showing her on a map that Nagoya is at least in correct direction. Her need for absolution was having none of my explanation. The pleasing automated English voice on the intercom mentioned of a stop at Kyoto and so Xiom finally relaxed... then went on to meticulously planning where we're going when we get out of Kyoto Station.

(Pic: Lonely Planet Japan, Xiomara's new bestie)

She cussed about buying this Lonely Planet: Japan book initially, but now they're good friends. We don't have a ton of time in Kyoto before catching the last train back, so planning is good. I pick on her for micro-planning everything, but I will say her ordered and outlined notebook of plans is a good balance to my "just jump off the train and go somewhere" spirit.

The discovery is what's fun to me. Look, I have my towel. Let's go!

(Pic: Tenugui "super" towel. The print pattern represents the quills on a Samurai's arrow)