A Late Night Stroll Through the Kyoto Imperial Palace

京都御所の夜桜

Following an early spring "nomikai" (night at the pub, or to be more exact izakaya), we rode back home to the Ninnaji Temple area from downtown via the Imperial Palace.

It was cold but the cherry trees in all their ephemeral glory were worth getting off the bike.

Few were in the park. A few solitary walkers and the usual police car that does a huge circumference of the huge park were visible. Otherwise, we had the park to ourselves.

Today is a perfect spring day, which will start the draw the curtain on what has been a perfect cherry blossom season.

The blossoms will start to fall, creating a "cherry blossom blizzard" around the photo buffs, those out for a stroll, and picnickers.

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Sakura Bullet Train Shinkansen

さくら新幹線

In addition to bicycles, we count among our loves trains.

In general, the slower the better - city trams (or "trolleys," as we called them in our youth in Philadelphia), 1960s era lines to rural cities, etc. - however, the new bullet train from Shin Osaka to Kagoshima is pretty fabulous.

It runs at a crisp 300 km (185 mph) at top speed, but that is old hat in Japan.

What won us over is the design.

From the extended duck-billed platypus like nose to the wood panels throughout the interior, this is a sexy machine.

The cars moreover vary somewhat in design. On our ride south - from Osaka to Kumamoto - we were in reserved car in plush seats that brought to mind Ricardo Montalban. Though the ticket price is no different from the unreserved seats, the level of luxury was akin to a business class airplane seat.

On the way back to Kyoto, we ran up at the last moment and lined up for one the the unreserved cars. It was a bit less divine, but still reeked of plush.



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