Hello,  my sweet, neglected blog. Life has been crazy: we’ve moved into our first home together. Also, I thought I lost all the pictures from my honeymoon. I am celebrating the fact that I FOUND THEM THANK GOD by blogging!

So!

The day after our amazing trip to Mt. Fuji started off really slowly. We ate breakfast right before the shut the buffet down at our hotel. Here’s what almost every morning looked like:

(Delicious.)

After breakfast, we went back to our rooms for a little while to pack. Then, in the mid afternoon, we headed out to wander around Shinjuku on our way to the JR station.

(Crab?!)

On our way, we found an amazing shop called GU that I somehow didn’t take any pictures of! It’s sort of like a small Forever 21 (price wise) and Napkin found an amazing pea coat (that he is still wearing even now!)  Kyary Pamyu Pamyu was the spokesperson for GU’s fall line– so here’s one of her video campaigns to give you an idea:

(I will always think of Shinjuku when I hear “fashion monstaaaaaaa”.)

I bought more than I care to admit, and a good deal of our afternoon was spent there– but finally we made it to the JR station to find the Shinkansen that would take us to Kyoto! This day was special for a few reasons. Obviously, we were going to Kyoto and that is amazing in itself, but this was the day that our JR passes went into effect!

I was a little wary of the JR pass, honestly. It’s expensive and it seemed a little confusing but now I can tell you it was one of the best decisions we could have made. Public Transportation is amazing in Japan but expensive– and the JR pass basically takes you anywhere you need to go. Including Kyoto!

And now!

Shinkansen!

(Scarf from GU!)

Shinkansen are some of the fastest trains in the world! And you would never know it because they are quiet and super comfortable. I’m about to show you one of my favorite pictures in the entire world– taken on our shinkansen bound for Kyoto:

Super cute picture of Napkin and I and then BOOM! You notice this!

This little girl does NOT HAVE TIME for selfies. No way.

Ahem. Favorite picture. Moving on.

It took us about three hours to get to Kyoto from Tokyo on the bullet train (versus five hours and thirty minutes on a commuter train) and it was great. Our train was full of surprises:

And you had better believe I checked every car out! Snacks are everywhere. I still, even now, can’t wrap my brain around how many snacks there are. Everywhere.

Our trip passed super quickly– before we knew it we had arrived!

Hello, Kyoto!

Notice that good-looking husband in that good-looking pea coat. (Also, he is carrying my ridiculously large bag of GU goodies, you just can’t see how big it is and that may or may not be on purpose.)

Kyoto Tower! Located directly across the street from the train station!

When looking into hotel stuff for Kyoto, I made sure of two things: I wanted a traditional style inn and I wanted it relatively close to the train station because I knew we needed that. It wasn’t until we actually arrived at Heianbo that I realized how excellent of a job I had done. Ryokan Heianbo was probably ten minutes away from the station, on foot. It’s tucked away into an alley off of one of the main roads but wasn’t hard to find at all– even with us (ahem, Napkin) hauling our luggage.

I ALSO didn’t realize that Heianbo was going to be absolutely charming. Like, seriously. Lovely.

This is the view as soon as you walk inside. I took this while we were taking off our shoes and signing in at the front desk. The inn is run by an older couple and they were super sweet and accommodating.  We got to Kyoto pretty late in the evening and, according to the rules when we booked our stay, we couldn’t check in after ten PM. But the owner told us not to worry and even helped us with our things.

From where I was standing when I took the above picture, this was to our left:

This was the “computer lounge” also known as the “SO CUTE!” room.

We were lead upstairs and into our room!

My favorite thing about our room!!

And Napkin’s least favorite thing…

…Remind me to tell you the story about him hitting his head so hard the whole inn shook. Because now it’s funny. At the time, not so funny– but now… pretty dang.

And just so you know! That’s the Kyoto Tower you saw earlier! This is a great way to show you just how close we were to the station. It was super quiet, though. In fact, the only noise we really heard (we slept with the windows open because the weather was still mild) was the kindergarten a few streets away! (#cute)

And now! The whole reason for this post. I didn’t take a lot of pictures of our first night in the Inn because it was late but then I realized that might be the PERFECT time for this:

Next post! Castles! Accidental Festivals! And the Best Food Ever!