Now in Kyoto - Thursday May 10

It’s 10.20 pm, rather late to be writing, but will try and get it all down. We were whisked on a bullet train to Kyoto this morning ..takes 2 hours and 20 mins...and as we alighted from the train, we could see our hotel from the platform, so we were checking in within minutes of arrival...contrast to Shinjuku! But first I must mention dinner last night because it was fun. We walked the streets round our area for a while and found that if we went a bit further than usual we came into a very classy shopping area, and we went down the little narrow side streets there and found a place that looked popular and what we would like. Not at all fancy, but the food pictures looked good...and we found it was a place where, depending on what you order, they bring a little grill to your table...we hadn’t realised that the scallop (one huge one in a shell) and our vegetables would be cooked on the grill...they as always helpful about putting sauces, and using the tongs and scissors on the table in a container to deal with the scallop..delicious and good vibes...we got talking to both lots of people next to us....the last ones had a fish, and some shell fish on their grill...one of them said he was from Hokkaido and he had been working at the Hokkaido food fair that Amr had stumbled on, so that was a talking point!

Now for today - we were looking forward to this hotel as it is the top class Ibis (there are 3 categories - budget, normal and classy - we usually have the normal one). The Tokyo room was spotless and perfect, but very small, and we were looking forward to spreading out a little in the fancier hotel! Well, the room here is TINY! We just laughed! It of course is immaculate and extremely comfortable bed and bathroom, except for space! But we’ve had 10 days of it, and we manage fine - move all the tea-making equipment etc to make surfaces where we can put things...

We arrived about 1 pm, so had the afternoon to do things...so Amr got us moving - got a subway to the imperial palace and found we could visit there without booking or ticket so we did and it was really good. It is sunny here, though still quite cool...lovely really...it had started to rain again in Tokyo just as our train pulled out! We then found that there are more parts of the imperial palace complex that you book to visit, so we booked for Saturday morning (needed passports)...then we got the subway to the famous bag shop that Peter and Louise have talked so much about...they hand make canvas bags...made by generations of a family of sailmakers I believe... just a fairly small place, but very popular - many tourists there, and some Japanese. Amr bought some orders for P and L, and for Denise who also loved it when she was there.

We returned to Kyoto station, and our hotel, by bus, arriving on the other side of the station. I thought we were somewhere else, as from the other side the station is absolutely enormous! Still easy to negotiate as we just had to cross to the other side, but it is a huge glass structure with layers of shops and restaurants and a hotel even up there above it all! (Which I assume is where P and L stayed!). From our side it just looks like a raised train station...no suggestion of the city within it! Mostly the bits of Kyoto we saw today are low rise buildings - old and rather higgledy-piggledy...not the huge skyscrapers of Tokyo...but this station building was an exception.

Had fun at dinner again tonight...walked along behind the fancy side of the station and saw many possible places but picked one that took our fancy and again had hot coals at our table and cooked sukiyaki - just delicious, again they started us off and showed us what to do...put some soy and finely chopped apple to make a sauce to cook the meat and vegs...all good. And now back in our pod room, and Amr is reading the book and planning our activities! Again the hotel provides a smart phone and there is a laundry, so we manage well!Leggi altro