Trains, Stairs and Bamboo.

In my opinion, Kyoto set the record for the most amount of stairs and that's saying something, given Japan's building density and perchance for stairs in general.

Today, we have been mooching around the Kyoto train station, the second largest in the country with 14 floors, a vast 10-story department store complete with skydining and 365 city views.

We got lost twice trying to find our stowed luggage and departure lines. I'm surprised it was only twice!

The Great Stairs (or massive staircase you can see in the photo) usually illuminate at night, so we didn't see them lit up, but a quick peek online and I can see their appeal. Visually. Paul and the kids climbed them, you know, for fun. I took the escalator like a sane person.

With time to kill until our bullet train to Tokyo, we wandered out to the Bamboo Groves via the local line. It was a scorching day so teenage enthusiasm was low after standing on a packed train for 20 mins then walking shoulder to shoulder down crowded streets for another 20 mins. Absolutely fair. They've been quietly obliging to all our sightseeing; its been a frantic few weeks. I couldn't be prouder of how quickly they offer their seats to strangers and take care of each other.

I'm a bit more sore today, so the walk was slow. That said, I was never tempted to jump into one of those tourist carts or human-powered tuk-tuks. The 'drivers' had to be so fit! Lugging significantly sized tourists up and down steep inclines whilst pleasantly calling out, "excuse me". I was embarrassed for those tourists. What a way to earn a living 🥴.

Anyway. Bamboo grove in itself? Immersive and I loved it. You could easily get lost in there for hours, although we didn't linger as the kids had no more sightseeing left. Back at the station, I got lost in the homewares section (cue much exclaiming on how cute everything was) whilst PieFace soothed the wait for the bullet train to take us back to where it all began. 🚆Read more