To finish off our time in Osaka and the Kansai region, I visit the fantastic Kyoto railway musuem, find that is the only thing worth seeing in Kyoto and we have a wonderful time in Himeji and Kobe.
After a 4 year delay thanks to “events” occurring, I finally made it to Japan, and I would be joined for the 16 day trip by JMSF32, regular contributer to the main channel. Its my first time in Asia, and JMSF’s first time outside the USA, so to say it was a culture shock is an understatement, but in all the right ways! This series is less of a “how to see X city” like my previous travel videos have been and more of a recollection of the different experiences we had while wandering across the country, taking every day one at a time.
Over the 16 days I saw a concert, Jimsf ate curry, we rode trains and reviewed vending machine ice cream. And it probably changes our lives.
another early start this morning sees me once again take the Hello Kitty Haruka which has quickly become our favorite train in Osaka to Kyoto as we’re not staying far from tanoi station the heruka is very convenient for quickly getting around the loop line to Osaka’s main station chinaka or all the way to Kyoto as an Express service about 50 minutes later I arrived at Kyoto and got to see its very impressive main building this is only the second largest station building in Japan which makes a little disappointing we did not have time time to fully appreciate the largest which is neoya for a city famous for being very old the station is anything but with a very modern roof offered the vast Concourse stretching for several stories and the West End features what appears to be a Stairway to Heaven allegedly it does have an end but I wasn’t going to go all the way up there to prove it the main reason why I didn’t climb Mount Kyoto station was because I was actually here to travel one stop down the line to the former ni station which nowadays is home to the excellent kot ra Museum see I was just getting we warmed up at the railway talk because apparently I took 40 minutes of video during my 3-hour Rapids tour of the museum so here goes that M much abbreviated tour the Kyoto rail museum is run by Jr West so most of the displays feature either J&R or Jr West locomotives and rolling stock going all the way back from the first steam engines built in Japan to the 500 series Janson which still runs on the San ocean kensen the museum is built around the former umoji roundhouse which is still next to the tokaido main line into Kyoto station the still active um hoki freightyard and the sanon mainline which is mainly used to fa tourist to the sites on the north side of Kyoto The Roundhouse which has a very impressive display of steam engines is the oldest concrete roundhouse still standing in Japan and the steam engines are not just for show as a fair number of them are still kept in operating condition and are regularly steamed up and take passengers along the short Museum line that runs alongside the nearby umji park just being able to say that I traveled behind a c56 steam engine in Japan was well worth the 300 y tickets to do so adjacent to the roundhouse is the workshop where you can see the museum maintaining their running Fleet and restoring their future exhibits and around the main building the electric and diesel trains are displayed now for me one of the highlights was a zero Series in Kon one of the most iconic and recognizable trains in the world even to people who know nothing about Railways this is what they think of when they think bullet train there is actually only one displayed outside Japan which I’ve been fortunate to visit but the museum here has two power cars and several coaches from a set which are open so you can actually walk around them and see how passengers traveled on the original high-speed train and if you want to be more than a passenger the cab is also open and you are very much encouraged to sit in the driver’s seat in what was one of the most advanced trains in the world to this day it is quite contrast to the driver’s seat of a steam Loco which back in 1964 were still reasonably common in Japan if not very common in some parts aside from the trains themselves I think the museum does a fantastic job showing the whole operation of the Railway and it history as well as just the basics of how trains work what signals mean how tracks are maintained in a way that someone who knew nothing about Railways could leave with a working knowledge of Railway operations and Technology I’ve been to a few Railway museums and this is one of the best if not nearly the best I visited the national rail Museum in York kind of has it on scale but in terms of content and presentation they’re pretty even and there are other railway museums in Japan run by other railway companies as there are many Railways companies in Japan and I will need to visit them on a future trip but the bar has been set very high by the Kure rail Museum and is very fitting that there are quality museums in Japan dedicated to rails because if it’s not been apparent by our trip so far Japan runs on Rails yes we’ve obviously been in the cities but so much of Japan is their cities crisscross by many railway lines as is the whole country Jim who could previously count on one hand the number of trains he’s been on in his life commented how cool it was that in Japan you can truly just walk up to your local station which will never be more than a 10-minute walkway in nearly every town in the country and get to nearly anywhere in Japan now it’s not a perfect system anyone who’s saying otherwise has probably never actually been here but it is one of the closest experience you will get to a perfect system and the kilter real Museum absolutely does this indispensable aspect of Japanese life Justice and spoilers for the rest of this video this is easily the best thing to do in Kyoto next closest thing was also Railway related and nothing else we saw in Kyoto was close but we’re probably going to get into that more later as now was time to head back to Osaka pick up gimps and head out to the Western Subs of Osaka for a bit of exploring we’ve seen the mod 17 ice but Al it wasn’t the last 17 ice I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen away for things um that on now haven’t seen a lot of that just makes another appearance a rare appearance it seems uh for those but the old favorites are still kicking around which is nice to know oh at least I find theual chamber supposed to be on the main reason why we came here will be covered in the main Channel video that I really hope has uploaded at this point but afterwards we did find ourselves wandering around Nish noia a city between Osaka and Kobe where we found probably the best blossoms of the trip closely matched with tomorrow’s destination but on this Sunday afternoon were people sitting out along the river under the Sakura it may modest there was no great Castle or Palace or great Scenic Vista in the background it was just ordinary buildings a road a railway a stream but it seemed like paradise to me and this really did feel like actual Japan not an Instagram story or a SAT this update just a normal spring day in this part of the world Kobe itself gave a similar feel of just normal every day in Japan we found the famous China Town down smell delicious at least to me uh my companion was not as impressed so dinner was some Japanese pasta which neither of us complained about at all so absolutely can recommend Japan’s interpretation of Italian food core was a bit of an impromptu visit so there was no plan and after dinner we just wandered towards the porch where we found a big fish and then a more somber mood found the memorial to the great henin aaji or earthquake in 1995 one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in Japan and the deadliest since the great kto earthquake of 1923 killing 6,434 people most of them here in Kobe for a sense of the destruction done by the earthquake par should appear has been left as it was in the aftermath of the Tremors the spine to damage the recovery was REM remarkably quick with the city determined to have been rebuilt within 2 years and as part of that rebuilding this area the port was turned into a modern Park which really looked great lit up and was a nice way to wrap up our unpleasant visit of Kobe [Music] the next day we traveled further field to the historic city of IMEI but we started today with a strong 17 ice update so we’ve seen this one because we’ve gone past it a few times but we’ve never commented on this 17 ice this 17 ice on platform 20 in shinos Saka nothing new I think that we’ve like seen that like maybe once before it’s a rare appearance a welcome appearance also chocolate mint is also pretty rare the wafer on seem to be more popular in Kai consistently seeing the Wafers uh the old favorites are still at the top and doing strong so nothing dramatic to report but I do think this is yet another combination of 17 ice yeah yeah which is nice and convenient so you guess you’re to get your train other than ice cream we were here for a very specific train and in addition to the heruka J.R West also uses Hello Kitty branding on a 500 series Janson which makes a single round trip a day from Hakata to Shin oaka while it is possible that some passengers were here who just wanted the 1137 to AATA it is also clear that the majority were either here just for this train or had adjusted their daily plans to line up with its schedule which is what we did The Branding here is even more extensive than on the harukas and the front coach is an exhibition SL gift shopped area because of course it needs a gift shop coincidentally the sanosan Canon opened the same year as Hello Kitty’s first appearance in 1975 which may have had something to do with the original tieup I think it’s a genius way to get tourists to travel west of Osaka and I’m all for encouraging this our time on the Kawaii train was relatively short as 40 minutes later we were at Himi to see the UNESCO recognized Castle conveniently the castle was at the end of a Long Street leading from the station so navigating our way was straightforward known as the white Heron for reasons that should be obvious Himi Castle is the largest and most visited Castle in Japan and is one of the finest examples of Japanese castles it sits a top a hill surrounded by what were originally the defense of mols and walls but are now Parks Gardens and himu the first castle was built in the site in 13 tree but it was significantly remodeled by toyotomi hioshi who also built aaka Castle the castle passed down several feudal Lords until the end of the feudal system when even the Japanese Army abandoned the castle and it was sold for a mere 23 Yen however the new owner couldn’t afford to demolish the castle a bomb that landed on the top floor in 1945 fell to explode and even the Great hin Earthquake couldn’t even knock over the bottle of sake in the tower’s Shrine it does seem that some sort of divine intervention has kept this Castle standing and was registered as one of Japan’s first UNESCO world heritage sites in 1993 as a typical Japanese Castle The Towering keep is primarily used for storage during peacetime as the Lord’s residents and government offices were in the smaller out buildings so the tower now seems a bit empty in times of war the people would move into the tower and use it for defense which may be surprising for us Europeans that you would use a wooden tower for this purpose but don’t underestimate the huge Stone foundations that the wooden Tower sits on being a completely wooden Tower though visitors have to remove their shoes when inside the tower the T roof incorporates the cards and the gardens immediately surrounding the tower and we got a combined ticket that gives entry to the neighboring cocen Gardens which are beautiful even on a rainy and gray day [Music] given how iconic and photogenic the entire Castle Park is it is incredible to think that it is more luck than judgment that stopped this wonderful place becoming a shopping street or a factory and also to think that we nearly didn’t visit other than that we need an excuse to travel on a very pink train the next day was our last day in canai so we did something really controversial we skipped most to Kyoto unfortunately my visit 2 days ago to visit the rail Museum confirmed our fears that kilo’s recent reputation of being an overcrowded tourist nightmare was correct the sand in Mainline which connects Koso station to two of the most popular tourist sites in N Castle and arashiyama is an overcrowd disaster because Jr West insists on having the limited Express train to be fully reserved which sends all the tourists most of which probably have a Jr passes that would otherwise let them use that Express train onto the local trains which these trains cannot hold everyone and it becomes just a mess and this is unfortunately the pattern that’s repeated throughout the city at the tourist hotspots so we skip most of them so this video we will not be showing you the old Kyoto streets filled with tourists and locals that hate them or we won’t be visiting the big shrines you know this is not a video on how to actually spend the day in Kyoto as our advice would be don’t just go somewhere else Himi is much nicer well actually pretty much everywhere else we went on the trip was much nicer just go there go anywhere else so all we did was we picked out two places we did actually want to see in Kyoto and thankfully these places were not that busy as for some reason tourists don’t appreciate the old Imperial Palace you know the thing that gave Kyoto his historic significant in the first place yeah apparently no one actually goes there so we went to the Imperial Palace on one of Kyoto’s only two Subway Lines which is part of the issue with the tourism they only have two Subway Lines Madness in Japan and yes as it turned out the palace itself was closed which is really inconvenient but the rest of the gardens and little little shrines thought around them are quite neat as it seems there’s a lot of shrines here de like the various aspects of Japanese life like there was one from music and there was three to the Sea because the sea is very important in Japan outside the park we then got the reality check of what Kyoto is really like because apart from some carefully selected and very much photographed sites it’s just a normal City and to be honest nearly everywhere else in canai is nicer than it you know even the suburbs of like Nish or Chiba where no foreigners visit are nicer and takiyama where we’re going to go tomorrow is just as good as Kyoto’s best and gets a tiny fraction of the visitors in comparison anyway time to start complaining as you kind of heard my piece on Kyoto and go somewhere that is genuinely good because while the tourists will kill each other for a view of the katsura River Gorge at arishi we had a cunning plan instead of going into the park where you could get one view of the scenic Valley why not just take a train through the valley on reserve seats and see all of the gorge and well that’s what the GIC Railway does running from Saga arishi station to tooto kamoka the 23-minute trip runs alongside the katsur River on the Old Railway which has long since been bypassed by a much more direct group to the mountains hikers can get off intermediate stations to climb Mount Ura but we were just here to enjoy the ride and the conductor at Saga station is the way too enthusiastic about her job she is true National Treasure that you will find a kilter and she come and see [Music] [Music] at the end of the line you take a short walk along the sweet potato fields to the mainline station to return back to Kyoto I have no idea why the Sako Railway has not been able to extend their line for direct transfer at umori station maybe the local sweet potato roers Union complained about lost business if tourists did not have to make the walk on a surprisingly windy pth uh even on a what orderwise being a pretty nice April day at least there was a little bit of shelter on the platform once we were back in Osaka it was well time for dinner which was our opportunity to see shinsekai or the new world a colorful District only the next street over from where we were staying and it took us 2 Days in Osaka to realize it was there and this area is like a mini dunam buy with plenty of color food and sake and the landmark susen Kaku Tower overlooking it all and it was a nice way to end our time in Kai as tomorrow was a big travel day for our last leg of our 16 days in Japan somehow and all this is a McDonald’s they could put a little bit more effort I know they have a brand name to keep up but you know yeah they’re looking decidedly plain amongst well everything else here you [Music] know like what if they had a cash your own fill of the fish I mean it is nice but it’s just [Music] brand yeah but you know they need to do something to catch up to catch your own fot of the fish across the road penguin cat penguin they broken noses maybe they’re the ones that they’re the penguins that fought back so they got to send outside
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Conductor is indeed national treasure