Takadanobaba Station in Alameda

Today, September 2, we said goodbye to Kyoto. We saw a lot, but there’s still more left unexplored. Good reason to return. 😉 Our agenda: traveling by train north and east to a ryokan near Mt. Zao. A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn. We took two trains to Yamagata, the closest station to Mt. Zao. This was the third and fourth ride on the Shinkansen. The adventure started when we grabbed the Nozomi Shinkansen in Kyoto, destined for Tokyo. This train ran on the Tokaido line, the first bullet train line in Japan. Our train. Nozomi 306, departing Kyoto at 8:36 AM  We got seats in the green car. That’s first class. Very nice. The Shinkansen provides free Wi-Fi. It’s good quality. Screenshot from connecting to the train wi-fi. The service was good, not great. As luck would have it, our seats were on the left side of the car, as we headed toward Tokyo.  That meant we would get a view of Japan’s famous Mt. Fujiyama. According to Wikipedia , Mt. Fuji is one of Japan’s three sacred mountains

AMAZING!! That isn't an adequate adjective to describe the Kyoto Railway Museum. It is the best that I have visited. Nothing in the U.S. compares.  Kyoto has an enormous collection of locomotives and rolling stock — all in immaculate condition. The breadth of the museum's displays is outstanding. It goes way beyond a bunch of pretty trains in a building.  We visited for an afternoon. I could easily spend a day and a half here. One reason I would not stay longer is that the display placards are in Japanese. Its a lot of work to try to translate each one using Google translate. Taking pictures of signs and translating isn't a strong point of that app. Next time, I’ll try Photo Translate. Of course, we took the train to the museum. As we did yesterday, we took the Kyoto subway Tozai line west from our hotel to Nijo. Instead of taking the JR West train toward Saga Arashiyama, we took it the other way. Two stops to the station right outside the museum gates Umekōji-Kyōtonishi.