Kyoto- Umekoji Locomotive Museum

Kyoto is a beautiful, historic city with 17 world heritage sites.  We decided not to visit any of them. We only had 1 day to explore in Kyoto and wanted to do some fun things the kids would enjoy.  We have visited a lot of temples and monuments in Asia (including several in Japan already) and they aren't at the top of the kids' list.
In the morning, we visited the Umekoji Locomotive Museum.  It had a real steam engine you can ride and lots of trains to climb in and examine.  On the way to the museum, we learned the Kyoto train line has local trains and rapid trains.  Local trains stop at every train station and rapid trains only stop at the major stops.  We were supposed to go one stop on the train, but ended up on the rapid train instead and it took us past our stop and we had to go back on the next local train the other direction.  Luckily, our train pass allowed us unlimited train rides.  

Umekoji museum, an old station house

Several of the museums/attractions had displays for pictures that included that day's date

On the steam train

Watching the trains

The steam train chugging through the cherry blossoms

All aboard

There wasn't a restaurant at the museum, but they did have a vending machine with microwave meals.  You put in your money and made your selection and it took the frozen meal and cooked it for 1-3 minutes before it appeared in the slot down below.  They had french fries, rice and sauce, chicken nuggets, and meatballs.  It was interesting.  We tried a few things and they were okay.

After the train museum, we took the train to Arashiyama, a beautiful part of Kyoto.  We wanted to visit the Iwatayama Monkey Park.  From the train station, it was about a 15 minute walk through town.  We passed the Tenryu-ji Temple on the way as well as numerous souvenir shops and restaurants.  Once you enter the Monkey Park, there is a long hike to get to the top of the hill to see the monkeys.  

Beautiful scenery on the way up

 There are signs all over the park warning you the monkeys are wild and telling you how to act with them.  You aren't supposed to look directly at the monkey, take pictures of the monkeys, or eat any food while in the park.  All the warnings make you think the monkeys could be dangerous or aggressive, but we had a good experience.  There were several workers at the top keeping a close eye on the monkeys (and visitors) to make sure there weren't any problems.  The monkeys casually walked around all the people.  They clearly were used to people and were not scared.  The hill was pretty high up and had a great view of the town below.

Monkeys at the top

Charlotte with a monkey hanging out nearby

panoramic view of Kyoto

 If you wanted to feed the monkeys, you could buy a bag of feed (either apples or peanuts) and feed them from inside a room with wiring on the windows.  The room was probably 20 feet by 50 feet.  It was interesting having the humans inside the "cage" feeding the monkeys, while the monkeys roamed free.

Charlotte feeding the monkeys

 When we were done feeding the monkeys, there was a fun playground for the kids.  There was a long slide and zip line the kids did over and over.  We walked back through town, did a little souvenir shopping then took the train back to our hotel and got some dinner.  It was a long, fun day and a great way to end our vacation.

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Odawara Castle/Kyoto

We decided to go see the Odawara Castle before catching the bullet train to Kyoto.  We wanted to see a castle at some point and, logistically, this one made the most sense.  Charlotte was very excited to "see a real castle where the Disney princesses used to live".  We took the train from Gora to Odawara and left our suitcases in a locker at the train station.  It was a short walk from the train station to the castle.

Ready to leave Gora Station

Beautiful cherry blossoms surrounding the bridge to Odawara Castle

 

Charlotte, Jenneke and Tommy on the bridge

The castle was built in the 1400s for the Omori Family.  It was destroyed in 1703 by an earthquake.  It was rebuilt again and then, in 1870, the castle was taken down and the pieces were sold.  A second earthquake in 1923 destroyed the remaining walls.  The castle was restored in 1960 as a museum.  The restored castle was built without any interior walls, so you didn't get a good feel for how they actually lived in the castle, but the artifacts in the museum were interesting.  The grounds of the castle were beautiful.  You had to pay an admission to get into the castle, but could walk around the grounds for free.  There were hundreds of people eating, playing, and relaxing around the property.  It was a Wednesday, but there was a market on the grounds with around 20 stalls selling food and handicrafts.  We had a great time.

For some reason there was a small cage with some monkeys near the castle.
We learned later this is the only variety of monkey found in Japan.

Charlotte and Tommy on the castle wall

Odawara Castle

The walls had seven layers to make them extremely strong.  This picture shows the different layers.  

Huge doors protecting the castle.  You had to go through several sets of these to get on the castle grounds.

Tom, Charlotte, and Tommy from the castle balcony

Street market on the castle grounds

Charlotte with a giant sweet potato stick-yummy!

Then we took the bullet train to Kyoto.  I was glad we opted to visit the castle in Odawara instead of waiting to see one in Kyoto, because it was raining when we got to Kyoto.  Our hotel was very close to the train station.  It was the smallest room we stayed in in Japan.  It was considered a deluxe studio.  It would have been roomy for 1 person for a short stay, but was crammed with 4.  There was a bed in one corner for Tom and I.  The kids slept on a futon mattress in the adjacent living area.  There was just enough room to get by their bed to get to the bathroom.  We had a VERY small kitchen, The bathroom was interesting.  We had one room for the toilet, one room for the shower, and the sink was in the hallway.  It was nice to be able to use all of them at once if we needed.  However, the sink was across from the kitchen and there was a cutout in the wall between the kitchen and the living room.  Therefore, we had to worry about the noise and light from the sink area bothering the kids once they were in bed.  

Our bed

The mattress just fit on the floor next to the couch.  (The couch also pulled out into a bed, but it completely blocked the doorway and  wouldn't have been practical)

kitchen

Shower room

Toilet room

Sink with front door on the right

Hakone Loop

We took the bullet train to Odawara, then bought tickets for the Hakone Loop.  Hakone is a small, peaceful town close to Mt. Fuji.  They have a transportation pass you can buy that gives you unlimited rides on a loop around the town.  It includes 2 different trains, a cable car, ropeway, and several buses.

Tozan train to Hakone

We sat in the front of our car.  We had a good view of the controls for the driver.
There were controls on both ends of the car.  

We spent the night at a hotel in Hakone.  I wanted to try out a ryokan, but wasn't sure about sleeping on the floor.  A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn.  The floor has tatami mats.  There is a table and chairs for eating meals and drinking tea.  In the evening, the staff moves the table aside and puts futon mattresses on the floor for sleeping.  There are strict rules about not wearing shoes in the hotel room, especially on the tatami mats.  It is also common for ryokans to have shared bathrooms.  Ryokans often have onsens, or public baths with water from the hot springs.

The hotel room had a bedroom with 2 small beds for Tom and I and a tatami mat area with a futon for the kids.  Being under 5, Charlotte was free at all our hotels, but that usually meant she did not get any bedding.  Luckily, the kids are small enough we could turn the futon sideways for them to share.  We also only got 3 meals for breakfast, although with each meal having 3 courses, we had plenty of food among us.  It also had a private bathroom, which I definitely preferred.  It did have an onsen with separate facilities for men and women, but we decided to skip it.  (It definitely wasn't kid appropriate).

the bedroom

tatami mat area with table and chairs

When we returned in the evening, the area was transformed into a sleeping area

After we got settled into our hotel, we headed out to start the Hakone Loop.  We started at Gora Station with the "cable car".  In this case, the cable car was a tramway pulled with cables.  After taking the cable car up the hills, we got on a ropeway (which is what I would call a cable car-it is also run with cables).    The ropeway gave us amazing views of the area.  It took us over a sulfur mine.  Legend is if you eat an egg cooked in the sulfur, it will add 10 years to your life.  The egg shell is black after it is cooked.  We didn't get an egg when we changed ropeways because I didn't realize that was the only place to buy one, but our hotel breakfast the next morning included an egg cooked in the sulfur.  We also had good views of Mt. Fuji from the ropeway.  It was very clear from the first ropeway car, but our car was crowded and I couldn't get a good picture.  In the 5 minutes it took for us to change ropeway cars, some clouds had moved in and I was not able to get a good picture.  The view was much better than the picture shows.

Cable car

Riding the cable car

mountain ascent via ropeway

Mt Fuji

sulfur mines

After the ropeway, we got on a boat to ride across Lake Ashi.  It was a fun boat ride.  We had intended to do some exploring when we got off the boat.  There were some gardens nearby we wanted to see.  However, when we got off the boat the temperature had dropped about 20 degrees.  I don't know if it was the altitude change or just the breeze coming off the lake, but it was cold.  We were under-dressed for the new temperature and decided to ditch the idea of exploring and made our new priority finding a warm place to eat.  We found a small restaurant.  We sat at the counter where we could watch the two older ladies make everything by themselves in the kitchen.  One of the dishes we ordered had rice mixed with sauce topped with an omelet with ketchup.  I personally did not think it looked that appealing on the menu, but Tom really wanted it.  It was delicious.  The old ladies took a liking to the kids and gave them free cookies for dessert.  When they saw how much we liked the egg dish, they made us a smaller portion for free.  It was a delicious meal.

Our boat

It was cold

After dinner, we waited in a long line for the bus to catch a train to go to the station near our hotel.  We got off at the wrong bus stop (my fault), but it ended up being a good thing.  Instead of having to continue on a crowded bus, wait in another line for the train, and then either have a long walk to our hotel, we took a taxi.  We had a great time in Hakone, but we were looking forward to our trip to Kyoto the next day.