It’s our second day in Japan's historic city of Kyoto and we’re about to pack five thousand years’ worth of authentic sites and bites into just a few hours. From samurai tea to shinto shrines. From alleyway foods to dancing geisha. And all from our home base at the Four Seasons Kyoto.

After spending our first night in Japan in a cramped robot hotel in Tokyo’s Ginza district, we took a cross-country bullet train to class things up significantly: We’re spending two nights at the five-star Four Seasons Kyoto, where we’ll soak up their 800-year-old family-friendly luxury and devour our first bites of true Japanese sushi. But... why the long face?

We're leaving Tokyo on a 2-hour trip to Kyoto, at speeds above 300 kilometers per hour, without leaving the ground. We're doing it by taking the world-famous Shinkansen bullet train between cities. And we booked their first-class "green car" to see if it's worth the extra cost.