Between visiting
Kyoto
and
Tokyo
, we toured the countryside of
Honshu
(
Japan
’s main island) via bullet train, the Shinkansen.
The Shinkansen was remarkable, especially on an Americans-only
week-long pass. First, it
was punctual to the second by its schedule; you could literally set your
watch by it. Second, it was
impeccably clean. Third, it
may not have been faster than a speeding bullet, but boy was it fast.
Our first stop after
Kyoto
was Miyajima, where we stayed at the Ryokan you saw in the previous
section. Miyajima is right
off the coast of
Hiroshima
, where we stopped for a few hours.
Completely leveled in World War II,
Hiroshima
is now a fairly sterile, modern town, with a fog of quiet reflection
hanging over it.
On the way from
Hiroshima
to
Nara
, we stopped for the afternoon in
Himeji
, a small town with an elegant and prominent castle the locals call “
White
Egret
Castle
.”
After
Himeji
, we stopped in
Kobe
for a steak dinner. From
Kobe
, we journeyed to the charming and ancient city of
Nara
, the original capital of
Japan
long before
Kyoto
and
Tokyo
.
Our final stop before
the concrete jungle of
Tokyo
was
Hakone-Fuji
National Park
, where we stayed at a lake lodge reminiscent of the Concorde and Nevele
in the Catskills, then were treated to a magnificent view of Fuji-San.