When we left our Kyoto apartment this morning, it was drizzling and we felt too lazy to navigate the subway to get to Kyoto Station. I tried out Go Taxi. Worked like a champ. Within 5 minutes, a taxi pulled up, the driver rolled down his window and asked for our order number. “007” I replied. Because that’s what the app told me to say.
Go Taxi is a taxi hailing app. Not a ride share service like Uber. You get a certified, licensed taxi and you get what you get. NO different comfort levels. An estimated price is quoted before you confirm and at the end, get charged whatever the meter says. You can register your credit card on the app and get automatically charged (like Uber or Lyft) or pay “in Car” at the end of the ride.
Side note: You can use the Uber app here but it just hails a taxi and costs three times as much.
We zipped right on over to Kyoto Station for our train to Kanazawa.
Kyoto Station is huge with mazes of restaurants and department stores. And a big, fancy hotel. There is a notable skywalk somewhere in the station.
We didn’t have time to go look for the skywalk, but we did have time for tea (coffee for the dude) and toast at a cafe three steep escalator levels up. The attendant brought me an egg timer so I’d know when the tea was properly brewed.
Previously, for the trains I’ve booked online, we had e-tickets. This time, I purchased online and was sent a QR code that needed to be scanned for paper tickets at a ticket machine or ticket counter. I’d taken care of that at the station in Hiroshima. So, four paper tickets for each of us. Three were for the Kyoto to Tsuruga hop (a Limited Express train) and one ticket for the Tsuruga to Kanazawa portion (a shinkansen). Why three? Seat reservation ticket + basic fare ticket + express ticket. And you put all three into the gate slot, all three pop out at the end of the gate with holes punched and the gate opens.
The Limited Express train, ours is called Thunderbird13, is not as roomy as a Shinkansen but still ample leg room.
Lushness and rice paddies most of the way.
At Tsuruga, we headed for the “Shinkansen Transfer Gate” and now not only did we have to use the three tickets but we had to add the fourth ticket, the one for the shinkansen. Four in, four out. Gate opens. We step aside (lest we get angry glares) to scan the signage for our platform and off we go. We have to cut diagonally through the crowd surging through the gates but we are getting good at maneuvering.
Okay, enough with the tickets. It all worked. Oh except to say, when we exited at Kanazawa the gate accepted and kept all four tickets. A true kindness because trash cans are rare, anywhere.
Shazam. Here we are in Kanazawa.
Famous for the high quality of its sake, eh? And ice cream with gold leaf. We await the photos of Ella lurching thru traffic and Grubb licking his beard.
I enjoy the posts where you describe how things work in Japan. A few questions.
1. I liked the Go Taxi idea. A way to get taxis into the digital age without disrupting the whole taxi system.
2. “007”? A coincidence I suppose.
3. How steep were these escalators? I would have guessed there are international standards about escalators.
4. Strange such a neat place doesn’t have a lot of trash cans.
2. From “007” gives us a ride to Platform 0. James Bond meets Harry Potter?
3. Steeper than normal. Japan has exceptional engineering because of frequent earthquakes so I’m sure they are safe…except if you have vertigo…or trying to hauls bug suitcases (which there are warning signs about)…or trying to take a photo while holding on to your suitcase and letting go of the handrail
4. Yes! I understand it is costly to have your trash hauled away so no one wants to pay to haul anyone else’s trash. Hmmm, I’ll have to research this some more.
Signage: when I enlarged the photo I could not see the details clearly.
1. Car number is clearly 8, what is the 16 above it?
2. The car layout has 24 rows, with a mysterious gold one, maybe it’s covered in gold leaf?, it’s not clear what would be special about rows 11-20. Are those rows of three seats?
Sign on left is seat layout as you figured out.
The 11~20 indicates we are standing at the door most convenient if we are sitting in those rows.
The gold indicates area for big luggage but you have to reserve it. There is also room for big behind the last row but you have to reserve the seat right in front of it in order to use it. There are the usual luggage racks that run the length of the train above the seats. Our carryon size fits up there no problem.
Some cars have 2 seats – aisle – 2 seats. Some have 3 seats – aisle – 2 seats