Japanese Pancake

September 25th--Unfortunately this morning we had to check out of the Rickshaw Inn where we enjoyed many a Japanese bath, but oh well...at least we were moving on to a hostel. :-) We checked out of the Inn at 10:00 and were able to leave our luggage for about an hour. We didn't need to head to the train station until about 11:00 so we decided to go back down to the morning market and find ourselves some snacks. Our first stop was the street stand by the bridge for our first try at mitarasha-dango (grilled rice balls in soy sauce). Yummy! They were so good. Abby even went back for seconds which is amazing for this picky eater. We got a couple of more sweet treats along the way before heading to get Abby a shoe horn. I'm pretty sure she's the only 6 year old begging for a shoe horn. She got hooked on them after being in Takayama and always having to take her shoes off when entering houses. She has slip on shoes and has always had issues with getting them on by herself. So, a shoe horn was like magic to her! After the big shoe horn purchase, we walked back to the Rickshaw Inn, picked up our luggage and walked to the train station. We had plenty of time before our train left so the kids and I headed into the convenience store to pick up some snacks for the train ride. We boarded the train at 11:30, had front row seats for the ride (very different because we could see straight through the front of the train), and arrived in Nagoya a little after 2:00. We quickly located the platform for our next train to Kyoto. This train was a Shinkansen (bullet train) that was a 30 minute ride. When we arrived in Kyoto, we had about a 15 minute walk to the Budget Inn (hostel). This was our new home for the next 4 nights. The one downside to Japan is that it is very expensive. We decided on a hostel for our time in Kyoto to save money (we had to rent towels and only rented 3...we figured the kids could share!). We are very blessed to have 4 mattresses (on the floor) and a private bathroom though. The room is very small but it is really like camping out....or staying in an RV. After getting settled in, we ventured out to find dinner. The Budget Inn had some restaurant recommendations so we decided to go to one of them. The restaurants name was Kyo-Chabana. It is okonomiyaki style food which translated into English means "As-You-Like-Pancake". We all enjoyed Japanese pancakes that were brought to our table and placed on a hot grill in front of us. The pancakes consist of batter and cabbage. You also select what you want in them, like shrimp, beef, chicken, pork, etc. It was a fun and different experience from the beef in Takayama. We've also decided that it doesn't matter what restaurant you go to in Japan, somehow it's going to end up cooking on your table. We are loving the food in Japan!!!