MY FIRST STEP IN JAPAN

KYOTO STATION 

My first step on Japan soil was at Kyoto Station. Kyoto Station is the most important transportation hub in Kyoto, Japan. It has Japan's second-largest train station building (after Nagoya Station) and is one of the country's largest buildings, incorporating a shopping mall, hotel, movie theater, Isetan department store, and several local government facilities under one 15-story roof. 

I Spent  a night at Kyoto Tower Hotel which located in front of Kyoto Station.

  During check in to Kyoto Tower Hotel you will get free ticket to Kyoto Tower and will see the Kyoto Town from top view. 

The present Kyoto Station opened in 1997 with 70 meters high and 470 meters from east to west, with a total floor area of 238,000 square meters. Architecturally, it exhibits many characteristics of futurism, with a slightly irregular cubic facade of plate glass over a steel frame. 

It was amazing to see such a architectural design using steel structure with combined a lot of bend and curve that can create modern technology.

Aside from the main building on the north side of the station, the Hachijō-guchi building on the south side was built to house Tōkaidō Shinkansen which started operation in 1964. The underground facilities of the station, including the shopping mall Porta beneath the station square, was constructed when the subway opened in 1981.