On our day 9 it came time to leave Tokyo and move to Kyoto. Unfortunately we were moving in a great hurry, so no pictures from the travel on Shinkansen. This mistake was somewhat fixed on the way back, though.

High speed train from Tokyo to Kyoto takes ~2.5 hours (515 km/320 miles) and while the speed is pretty high, it does not feel like a fast moving train while you are inside.

We arrived to Kyoto in the mid-day and took a taxi to our hotel.

Our hotel from outside.

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For our last full day in Tokyo the plan was to visit Ginza in the morning and we already had purchased tickets for an evening performance in the Suntory Hall.

Ginza subway station. Unlike other stations we have see, there are automatic fences that block the way if there is no train.

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In the evening of day 7 we decided to go to the Chidori ga Fuchi part of the moat around the emperor palace. We have  seen some spectacular pictures of beautifully lit sakura trees at night and wanted to capture something like that.

We arrived during a day time, though the sky was overcast and not pretty. Yet right after exiting the subway station the atmosphere looked quite different from the rest of Tokyo. We immediately saw a lot of sakura trees and people with cameras taking pictures.

Moat during the day.

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On Sunday our plan was to go to Harajuku, this is a famous place in Tokyo. People of strange fashion meet there and there are a lot of fashion shops too.
Another of the VOLKS shops is located there so we wanted to visit it too.

This building is near Shinjuku station and it is the second biggest educational building in the world. It's named Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower.

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After we finished our dinner in Izakaya, it was already dark. Ihara-san and his family headed home and we decided to wander around some more and to take some night pictures.

Rainbow bridge at night.

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The day 6 was preplanned long before we came to Japan. On this day we decided to go to Hamarikyu Garden and then to Odaiba with our friend (and then - coworker) Ihara-san who greatly helped us to prepare for the trip too.

So we met at Shiodome station at 13:30 with him and his wife and daughter and entered the Garden.

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After Ghibli museum we briefly returned to our hotel to pick another camera and tripod and then headed to Roppongi Hills area hoping to get to Mori Tower's sky deck in time for sunset.

Unfortunately we miscalculated the time needed and arrived somewhat late, so no stunning sunset pictures.

Mori Tower.

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On day 5 we had previously acquired tickets to the famous Ghibli Museum dedicated to animations by Studio Ghibli and its director Hayao Miyazaki.

Our starting time was scheduled for 10am so we actually had time to have a breakfast before going. Found some other Udon place this time.

Udon with an egg.

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The plan for day 4 was to go to Hakone. Typically at least two days are recommended for the trip, to include an overnight stay at an "onsen" resort, but we did not have this much time. The weather forecast was pretty promising with mostly sunshine and no rain.

We woke up pretty early in the morning and rushed to the Odakyu terminal in Shinjuku. A special Hakone free pass (2 days) is available for 5000 yen that includes transportation to and from Hakone and all transportation types within Hakone which makes it worthwhile. For additional 870 yen (one way) a seat on "Romance Car" express could be reserved. We took the Romance Car option for our trip.

Inside the romance car. We got our seats at the very front of the first car, right behind the operator.

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After we were sitting in the restaurant the weather worsened. The light rain that started about the time we entered the restaurant became stronger.

The closest building was Kyozo Sutra Archive

These are rotating bookracks called rinzo. Important Buddhist sutras are kept there. By rotating the rinzo it is said you get the same merit as reading all the sutras.

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