00:00:00 John Daub: Everybody, welcome to Kyoto Station. We're now on the other side of the station. This is the Hachijo exit or the west exit side of Kyoto Station. Now, Kyoto Tower is on the other side. We can't even see it from the point that I'm at. But over the last several years, this side of Kyoto Station has exploded with hotels. And we're going to be taking a walk around in this episode, take a look at some of them.

00:00:45 John Daub: Before I start here, let me give you a quick overview of Kyoto Station. You can see here, this is the Shinkansen, that white right on the right side there. And we're now looking at on the top, that's the Hachijo side of Kyoto Station. And you can see there's a lot of construction there when Google Earth made this. Right there on the left side now. Those are all hotels now. And on the right side, you have Kyoto Tower, but not as many. It's more old school stuff. And I'm going to show you what I mean.

00:01:25 John Daub: Arthur Vandelay is here. How you doing? Kyoto Station is a massive station. It's a big structure. That's that big one that you see on the right there. The Shinkansen on the bottom left, all connected with an overground passageway.

00:01:45 John Daub: This is the other side, the east side, the central exit of Kyoto Station. The taxis, the buses, they're all on this side. Well, there's some stuff on this side too. But for long haul buses, they usually come to this side of the station. So this is a very quick overview for you.

00:02:05 John Daub: The hotel that I stayed at was called the Sanco Inn. Do I recommend it? Here's what I got. I mean, I can't not recommend it, I guess. Here's what I got here. The bedroom. Alright, not bad. I don't like it when they put the two beds together. It's like a Hollywood triple or whatever. Like, it really put a lot of stuff in this little small space. I think they should have put like a queen-size bed instead of two doubles, but I don't know. Maybe that's what people want. It's very small.

00:02:45 John Daub: Here's the bathroom. It's just the bathtub. And they separated this with the sink which is really weird. You see the sink is on the left side there, the bottom left is inside of the bedroom which I thought was odd. So you have the bathroom and the bedroom, it's very very tight in there. And the price that I had to pay for this was alright. Weekday it's like 13,000 yen or what is that like $80-$85. Well you're right across from Kyoto Station. On the weekends it was 23,000 yen or like a hundred and fifty dollars and I had to spend that because I had no choice. I had to stay at Kyoto Station because of the ninja festival thing that I did yesterday.

00:03:35 John Daub: If you haven't seen that yet definitely you're gonna want to check this out. It's hilarious. I was in a ninja night attack experience where they reenacted historical event between the ninja and the samurai. Check this out here. You have no idea what he's doing there but yep you can participate in this. It's once a year. You have to check this out. It's once a year and it's outside of Kyoto here.

00:04:10 John Daub: Alright let's go walk around here. This is Kyoto's west side and take a look at some of the expansion that's happened over the last couple of years. They're still doing construction here but I remember going past Kyoto Station and just seeing a ton of construction. There's the airport limousine going to the Kansai Airport so they'll take you. How much is this? So it leaves on the 55 here and it could have right so it's every 20 minutes and it's 1,340 yen and there you go. So you'll be dropped off right next to the hotels which I think is convenient.

00:04:55 John Daub: A lot of restaurants have popped up here, things that are quick eats and very easy. Like this is Nakao which is a chain, we got them all over Tokyo as well and you'll get a taste. Shoku so you don't actually need to get a hotel breakfast. Look at this. You for this is for like less than $2 with the exchange rate right now you get a raw egg which you would swirl it up and put that on top of it for tamago kake gohan (raw egg over rice). You have some seaweed which you can use your chopsticks and put on the rice and I like to tweezer it and then make a little onigiri (rice ball) out of it and a bowl of soup. That's really healthy nutritious.

00:05:45 John Daub: Here's one if you don't want the raw egg you get some bacon for like 35 cents it's crazy something like that and then a piece of salmon which will help power you through the day. Very cool and it's 50-50 with the non-Japanese in there.

00:06:05 John Daub: And here's the for the Itami Airport. Here's domestic. Here's the tickets for the buses just right across the street from the station. That's the Shinkansen platform up there so you're probably gonna see a train going by here in a minute or two.

00:06:25 John Daub: So there's an Aeon Mall in this section here so you can do some shopping and buy some clothes. I actually needed to get a Uniqlo because I didn't realize how it's October, the mid to end of October. I didn't realize how cold it was going to be here. The weather said 20 degrees Celsius in the sun so I was prepared for that but there's some nipply chill in the air so I had to buy this sweatshirt for about 25 bucks at the Uniqlo and it does the job it keeps me warm.

00:07:00 John Daub: I'm going to just circle around and then we're going to come back on the Kyoto Station side and then swirl back in this direction. Actually, maybe I'm just going to do it the other way. So let me show you the prices here so you get an idea.

00:07:20 John Daub: This is Kyoto Station. Let's bring this up on the chart. You see Kyoto Tower. We're on the other side of Kyoto Tower. You can see the blue spot. That's me right now. And now I'm going to show you the hotels here. Boom. There are a lot. Let me go in between here. There are a lot of new hotels that have popped up. And the prices are reasonable, I think, for Kyoto. A lot of them are around the ¥8,000-¥13,000 range, which is $50 to $80, more or less.

00:08:00 John Daub: And I want to be honest with you. The size and the quality is different. So you do get what you pay for, more or less, and you really don't have to pay for anything. Get what you pay for but that gives you an idea. Like we didn't have this many hotels on this side of Kyoto a few years ago so it's just really unique to do that.

00:08:35 John Daub: Alright let's walk over towards the station just kind of improvising here to give you an idea. The taxi stands in the back. You know whenever I grab the taxi especially if you're going to Fushimi Inari, the 10,000 gates, you want to get off on this side. You don't want to go the other side. Um there's not a lot on this side in Fushimi Inari.

00:09:10 John Daub: The Nintendo headquarters there's a new hotel that's going up right there they still have the construction on it. Um that one with the green tarp that's my hotel I think that was the Sanco Inn. This one here I mean it was like good enough. There's the Hotel KK Hanare? Hanare is the railway so a lot of the railway companies have created hotels as well of course they're going to get in on the travel because they can use their transportation um to promote their own hotels.

00:09:50 John Daub: And then there are a couple hotels in an Aeon Mall in this direction more hotels here. There's the Daiwa Roynet Hotel which is maybe the three or four star hotel on this side. It's not bad I saw the pictures of it online it's okay. I mean I don't know it's not the Ritz-Carlton but it'll do you if you're on a you know luxury budget or something like that. There's the Elson Net and if you go down the street there's some even more. The further away you get from Kyoto Station the cheaper the prices are going to get.

00:10:35 John Daub: Hello from Patagonia Argentina how awesome is that. Alright let's cross over here and get just a close look at the Hachijo exit of Kyoto Station. A lot of westerners here this is like the start of a trip. There's a McDonald's on this side there's a bunch of lockers over here.

00:11:00 John Daub: You can see the Kyoto Station map over here. Let's see there's a group over there getting ready to travel. Inside here here are the lockers. McDonald's has a skinny burger which is a tradition going back decades. It's the egg burger. It was the weirdest burger when I came to Japan. Gina went like what they put an egg on a burger that's really smart.

00:11:35 John Daub: But you've got tons of lockers. Just Kyoto is so well put together. Right now showing maps is always really helpful. Braille as well, which is great, accessible.

00:11:55 John Daub: Here's the Shinkansen platform. Here's where we are right now. You have the shuttle buses. You have the taxi drop-off, so taxis can come in and drop off passengers. You can get around here. There's the express highway buses, the airport bus. It's just so easy to understand. It's all right here. I think if you didn't see this map of this side of the station, it would be a little bit harder.

00:12:35 John Daub: If you move over to the right side, this is in front of the Roynet Hotel. You have the more express buses, scheduled sightseeing buses. This is where I left to depart for the Ninja event yesterday. And then the Kyoto Avanti, which is where there's a Tully's Coffee and a 7-Eleven in here. Lots of convenience stores. Lots of things to do and see here.

00:13:10 John Daub: Kyoto is really overcrowded with tourists and people in general right now, so I do tell people to stay away. But here I am. It's work. It's work.

00:13:25 John Daub: Kyoto Station is pretty big. Now we have Toji Station. Toji is the temple right here. And if you're riding on the Shinkansen, if you look to the left when you're going to Osaka, you'll see this really amazing pagoda. That's Toji. And if you are staying on this side near the Aeon Mall, all these hotels, it's only a couple minutes walk and you can get to Toji Temple and check that out. It's one of the interesting ones here in Kyoto that I don't think people see that one as much.

00:14:05 John Daub: And then you have the National Museum on the other side. This one is also worth seeing if you're near Kyoto Station. This is the Higashi Honganji Temple. Honganji is what we just say. We wouldn't say temple, but it is a temple. And it was under renovation for a very long time. Finished now. It's quite nice. And if you walk from the station, it's a straight shot. You get to Gion or Shijo, which is the center for the city of Kyoto. And you really feel that when you're there.

00:14:50 John Daub: And Dugan, how you doing? As the sun's starting to come up here in the morning. It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Here's the bicycle parking, the motorcycle parking. Everything is just so well set up and so clean because they've redone this side of the station.

00:15:20 John Daub: Hachijo exit of Kyoto was always kind of like, eh, there's nothing there. And Japanese stations in general were sort of like that. You would go to the ekimae (station front) or the station front and there'd be some things. A big crowd of people. There'd be some things where, oh, there's luggage coming. It's so crowded.

00:15:55 John Daub: Just looking at the vending machines, seeing if Kyoto has something different here. There's always a side to Japanese train stations where everything is on one side and then it's like really gotten weak offerings on the other side. But Kyoto Station has changed that. Both sides have something that's of value now. This side being hotels and transport. The other side, the hotels are just so much more expensive. You can still see them, but they're a little bit older. There might be a new one. I'm trying to remember. I've stayed a few of them.

00:16:45 John Daub: The further you walk here, this is going towards the Higashiyama side. There's more hotels. Some of them look like they just finished construction. There's a ton of them. This more or less summarizes the hotels. Look at this. One of the hotels is here. This is one, two, three, four, five. I can see hotels.

00:17:15 John Daub: Oh, by the way, those students are from Fukushima Prefecture, which is quite a long way away from their hometown. I was talking to them yesterday. They're staying at a hotel nearby. They came by bus, which is really far from Fukushima.

00:17:35 John Daub: Alright, here is a tourist and sightseeing buses will depart from this side. If they did it on the other side, it would just be chaotic. You see there's tour guides leading people into the buses. The kankō bus (sightseeing buses) is what we call them. So you can get around.

00:18:00 John Daub: Okay. I want to show you how well that they've laid this out too. The little things, they all kind of add up. These little conveniences add up for an easier experience than it was about five years ago. Again, a nice map there. Then they have this signboard. It shows you all of... Well, it's not exactly in English, but it shows you the buses that are going and which platform that they're on.

00:18:35 John Daub: Michael Cesano is here. Aloha, brother. But anyways, you can see that if you know the time of your bus, it'll tell you the stop that it's at typically. Now it's nil. But yeah, nothing in English. Change, come on. Help me out here. Yeah, looks domestic.

00:19:00 John Daub: Oh, so there's an underground passageway to get to the Shinkansen. Two here. Two here. So this will take you straight to the Shinkansen without having to cross the street. The elevator is good if you have baggage. Everybody's got baggage. So many.

00:19:25 John Daub: And there's even a smoking area here. Don Quijote inside there. That's a hotel on the other side in the center. And a lot of the meeting points are right here. As you just cross from Hachijo exit, a lot of meeting points are here. A lot of people holding up signs like they had the ninja... Ninja departure here as well.

00:19:55 John Daub: I don't know how you can wear short sleeves in this weather. How do you wear short sleeves in this weather? Oh my gosh. The hotel, Vischio Kyoto. Vischio. Never heard of them. There's a FamilyMart. Don Quijote behind me. And there's a yakiniku place over there, which is new. And you can see people with suitcases on the other side. And over there, too. Oh, there's a lot of people. Oh my gosh. Kyoto has really...

00:20:40 John Daub: Oh, there's a Shinkansen on the platform. That's gonna be taking off in a minute. Any questions here? I'm real happy to help you if you have any. It is kind of fun to take the Shinkansen from Tokyo.

00:21:00 John Daub: This is the view of Mount Fuji yesterday as I flew past Shin-Fuji Station. Mount Fuji just showing itself over the clouds there. A little bit of snow on the top. Got to be honest. I've been here 25 years. Not that I'm a fan of clouds. I'm a fan of snow. And I'm still struck by the beauty of Mount Fuji. And rightfully so. Climbing season ended in September. I think the first week of September, there's some climbing going on, and then that's it.

00:21:45 John Daub: I'm on the Hachijo side. Hachijo West now. It could be the south side. On the map, always looks like it is, but which way is north? Kyoto Station's not that old, at least not that I think it's old. This is where I stayed. This is the Sanco Hotel. Sanco Inn? I don't even know how you pronounce it. It was the closest to the station and most convenient.

00:22:25 John Daub: Kyoto Station is, I think it came about 1996 or 7, and they built it for the Nagano Olympics. And it's really beautiful. This side, the Hachijo side of the station was not really rebuilt so much back then. They built up the other side around Kyoto Tower. And now they've fixed up this side finally, 25 years later. And it is quite nice.

00:23:00 John Daub: There's the Ibis Styles Hotel. And there's a ton of other hotels on this side. The Aeon Mall is not that far away. Let me just show you down the street here. This is all looks kind of new. There's a hotel that's being built right here as well, where the motorbike is behind there. And a lot of people wheeling from their hotels to get to the Shinkansen. Again, it's really easy to get in.

00:23:40 John Daub: If you've got a JR Rail Pass, or something like that. There's a yakiniku restaurant, the Royal Twin Hotel. And there's three more hotels in this direction. That's crazy. That's so crazy.

00:24:05 John Daub: Back in the past, there were only a few dodgy business hotels on this side, and now they've made it where it's more touristy. 5,000 yen, or about $35 in exchange rate, typically. But now, with the nicer hotels that have come up, more comfortable for western tourists in particular, actually any tourist, it's nice. It's very nice.

00:24:45 John Daub: Should you stay here? I'm not sure. But I think that it's one of the options, and if you do, probably will have a pretty comfortable stay. Getting over to the other side of Kyoto, those hotels are quite expensive. You can find like a machiya (traditional townhouse), or something really interesting if you look, book in advance.

00:25:20 John Daub: But if you're including a weekend, and November, which is the peak season for Kyoto, with the autumn leaves changing, it's expensive here. So be prepared to pay three times more. If you want to save a little bit of money, do a couple of days here. If you're just making Kyoto one of the highlights, go stay in Otsu in Shiga Prefecture. Hotels on the weekend were three times cheaper, and it was only, I think, an eight minute train ride from there. And it's one, I think it's like one or two stops. And you can see Lake Biwa, which is really nice. I thought that that was, that's a pretty interesting option.

00:26:15 John Daub: Alright, everybody. As I said here, it's really changed. I'm glad I got a chance to walk around with you and look at it. Don't forget to hit the like button. Leave me a comment on that ninja video. I'm telling you right now, this thing was an incredible experience. You're going to feel like you were there too.

00:26:45 John Daub: Here's the, I changed the thumbnail because I wanted to get the vegan ninja in there. Let me know your thoughts on vegan ninja. And that guy behind me who's wielding a sword is coming at me from behind. Matane (see you later).