M & I have researched the area quite a bit and besides the city centre and castle (which we did yesterday), the only other thing that looked worthwhile to see/spend time at was Lake Hamana. It is actually strictly speaking a lagoon as it is connected to the Pacific Ocean but Japan considers it to be the 10th largest lake in Japan. The water in the lake is brackish because of the connection to the ocean though apparently it wasn’t like this until 1498 when an earthquake in the area changed the topography. The lake is well known as it is a key source of eel, nori (what is wrapped around maki), prawns and soft-shelled turtles. That means they are many restaurants in the area specialising in those delicacies especially unagi (freshwater eel). While we have tried many local Japanese dishes while here, eel & turtle aren’t two things I am rushing to eat. I have eaten eel before and really don’t like it (it is very fatty and rich). What further puts me off eating it, is that unagi is poisonous unless cooked – thanks I will give it a skip!

All of that to say that M and I though we should at least go and look at Lake Hamana. Unfortunately to get to the resort area requires a 45 minute taxi costing the price of my house or a bus (slightly cheaper at about $10) but it stops 26 times on route to the area. Neither of those were of interest to us so we decided to rather take the train (free because of our rail pass) to Bentenjima station which is on the southern most tip of the lake and to walk to the Nagisaen camping ground (didn’t know the Japanese would camp!) which would give us a view of the lake.

While walking up to the lake the locals were looking at us like we were lost. They were no doubt thinking ‘Who are these idiots and why are they here – the tourist area is 45 minutes away’. The camp site was deserted except for one tent with some people in it. It seems the Japanese don’t camp. Lovely flat field though that M and I thought would make for a nice cricket field. M decided to climb down and at least feel how warm the water was – I didn’t want to risk it in any case of a sudden tsunami given these signs are up in numerous places.

Having seen the lake, we headed back to the train and back to hotel for the balance of the day. We did make a quick stop at the supermarket to have some snacks & drinks available for the balance of the day. We headed out again for dinner in the evening. Given we have eliminated unagi as a meal choice, that does limit the number of restaurants available to us. M did some googling and found that one of the top rated restaurants was an Italian place with an Italian chef/owner. Given we are playing Italy next it seemed fitting to eat some Italian food. While expensive (and turned out to be the most expensive meal we have had in Japan), it was still reasonable versus what we could pay.

M & I had wine for the first time in a week (Italian of course) and we had Japanese Carpaccio for starters and seafood risotto for main course. Both were very good. It was definitely the best food we have eaten since we have been here.

One thing I keep forgetting to tell you about Hamamatsu is that the signs are all in 3 languages – Japanese, English and Portuguese. The latter might surprise you but it is because a large number of Brazilian Japanese moved here since the 1980s. Hamamatsu has the largest number of Brazilian Japanese at around 15000. The Japanese government is trying to encourage them to return to Brazil and has a programme running that pays them $5000 a person if they return to Brazil and commit to not come back to Japan. Seems a little strange given the Japanese population needs younger people to support their aging population but clearly they don’t want Brazilian Japanese to do that.

Until tomorrow and our last game and last night in Japan ….

P & M

We had breakfast included in our hotel rate and so M & I waited until towards the end of breakfast time to have breakfast so we could sort of combine it with lunch and skip lunch. The breakfast is a wide spread of both local and western type breakfast. Most importantly I can get an decent americano (or two) and not have to pay R65 (or more).

After breakfast M and I walked up to Hamamatsu Castle (about 1.5km from the hotel). It was built about 500 years using a stone packing technique. The stone packing is very strong because as you can tell the castle is still standing today. The castle itself (not the foundation bit) was damaged in WW2 raids but has been restored to its original condition.

The castle is surrounded by a park (surprisingly called the Castle Park!) and the grounds are quite extensive. It is a place of peace and tranquility. I said to M that you can see why gardens appeal to Japanese because they basically have no space at home (either inside their homes or around their homes). So you must value the open spaces you can access elsewhere. The different places in the garden had different significance but all the plaques were in Japanese only and google translate (while very handy for a trip like this) doesn’t do a great job on sentences.

As there isn’t a lot to do around Hamamatsu, we walked back to the hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon in the room. I managed to do some work and M wiled away the time on whatsapp and watching YouTube clips or whatever (and catching up on some sleep).

Later in the evening we headed out to get some dinner. We have eliminated the restaurants in the hotel as options as I don’t want to be bankrupt when I get home. One of the restaurants here has dinner for Yen20000 ($200 or roughly R3000) per person! There are a lot of restaurants around though at the station and also on the basement level of our hotel. We headed to the station and after not finding anything that grabbed our attention we realised we actually felt like a burger and so headed back to basement level where we knew there was a burger place. The only issue is that none of their staff spoke any English and our Japanese is limited to arigatou and hai (which the Japanese use a lot by the way).

The staff kept talking to us in full sentences like we could understand them and when we looked blankly at them they repeated it but much slower. It seems that speaking slower when people don’t understand your language isn’t just a think English speaking people do! Needless to say them speaking slower didn’t help us but we did manage to muddle our way through placing an order and we got the right things so we consider ourselves to have been successful. Japan does food well (whatever you end up eating) and the burgers were no exception.

And that was it for the day. Until tomorrow …

P & M

We checked out just before 11am and headed to our last stop on our Japanese tour. We were heading to Hamamatsu which is north east of Osaka on the coast. Multiple trains involved (as per usual) – train to Osaka, change onto a train to Shinosaka and then shinkansen from Shinosaka to Hamamatsu. There are a number of things that amaze me about Japan and I have only ever seen in this country (and I have been to quite a few). For example, I have never seen an escalator that starts as stairs, goes flat in the middle for a bit and then goes back into stairs again. I tried to capture it in the picture. It basically matches the profile of the staircase.

We arrived at just after 1pm. The hotel we are staying is the Okura Act City Hotel (https://www.okura-nikko.com/japan/hamamatsu/okura-act-city-hotel-hamamatsu/). It is only a short walk from the train station and is the only high rise building in the area.

Hamamatsu is a musical city and the building is designed to resemble a harmonica. The building has a concert hall and there is a musical museum also attached to the building. The hotel only occupies from the 30th floor upwards and there is an observation deck on top floor (45th). We are staying on the 34th floor and have views over the area out to the ocean. I tried to take a photo from the room window but it is almost impossible to give you a sense of how densely populated the area is. My wife always says photos need to be 2/3rd sky and 1/3rd land – I went with 2/3rds land and 1/3rd sky to try give you an idea!

As I mentioned, it is a musical city and the home to Yamaha – both the motor company and the music company are headquartered here. It is also the home of Kawai who claim to be the leaders in innovation around pianos (they apparently invented the digital piano and also pioneered the move away from wood to carbon for grand pianos). The prefecture (Shizuoka) is also the home of Suzuki and Honda.

Once we had checked in we headed out to the shops to find some lunch. We felt like some fresh fruit and so found a local supermarket and bought fruit, cheese and biscuits and some chicken skewers for lunch. It was a low cost approach which we then blew over dinner. Neither of us felt like doing much yesterday and so I did some work and we watched some movies. We went for dinner in the hotel. They have a teppanyaki restaurant and we wanted to give that a try but when we arrived we were told it was ‘full’ (in very broken English) though M and I could see that there were only 3-4 people in the restaurant! No amount of asking how it could be ‘full’ when then were only a handful of people occupying the place made any difference and so we headed off and went to the Chinese restaurant instead.

We had some dim sum, sweet & sour chicken and beef with oyster sauce. It was very good (probably some of the best food we have had since we have been here) but it was also very pricey. We will try and find a cheaper alternative for the next few nights!

Until tomorrow …

P & M

We traveled to Osaka from Toyota yesterday. It is a bit of a mission because it firstly required a 20 minute walk to train station – we tried to get a taxi but they said the taxi (sounded like the only one in Toyota!) would take 20 mins to arrive. Then a local train (private company run so required buying a ticket) to one station, change at that station and then onto another train (from same company). Due to me leaving the station accidentally (and the other two following) we lost our tickets for the connecting train. You can just walk through the barriers though (I am sure you’re not allowed to) but we did actually buy a ticket (we just accidentally used it in the wrong place) and no one stops you so we just did it. They probably thought these foreigners don’t know how to work the train system and just left us alone.

We then had another train (this time we could use our rail passes) to Nagoya where we changed to the shinkansen to Shinosaka. At Shinosaka we had to take a train to Osaka and then change again for our station which was Universal City. 6 trains later and we arrived at our station which is just 1 minute from the hotel we are staying at which is Hotel Keihan Universal Tower (https://tower.hotelkeihan.co.jp). I am not sure how we chose it but it is right on top of Universal Studios theme park (hence the name). It was probably cheaper than anything we could find elsewhere. The hotel is actually quite nice – the rooms being a reasonable size (being a key criteria) and 1 minute walk from train station being really helpful. Being right outside a theme park is a little weird though especially when all the stores and restaurants are places like GAP, TGI Fridays, Red Lobster etc i.e. all American stores and restaurants.

It does have a Takoyaki section which is a local Osaka specialty. It is ball-shaped, made of a wheat flour-based batter and filled with minced or diced octopus. We thought we had better give it a try seeing we are in Osaka and so we had a selection of them for lunch. You pay for them at a machine and then hand your slip to the store and they then provide them to you. We shared a selection of 26 between the three of us and that was enough for lunch.

After lunch we headed to the only sightseeing place that seems worthwhile in Osaka and that is the Osaka Castle. It was originally a site of Honganji Temple but then in 1583 Hideyoshi Toyotomi decided to build it into a castle and he used the castle to quell the wars and unite the nation. It was then subsequently laid siege for over a year, destroyed in the attacks, rebuilt but the next Shogun, struck by lightening and burnt down, rebuilt and then burnt down again in 1868 following a battle but in 1931 was rebuilt again. It stands on a hill and is surrounded by both an outer and inner moat. The outer moat is 90m wide in one section.

We walked up to the castle and as we were walking to the stop M said ‘I think their plan was to tire out any armies before they got to the top’. It is pretty steep and you could see how difficult it must have been to penetrate and why a siege might have been the best option to force a surrender. In true Japanese style they have a time capsule up there too (you can see it in the photo above). It was done in 1970 and there are multiple levels. The top levels can be opened at the start of each century but the very bottom level (containing the majority of the time capsule) is only to be opened in 5000 years from when they did it which is 6970. Talk about forward planning!

We headed back to the hotel and rested for the balance of the afternoon and then went for dinner nearby. There are a lot of restaurants but not a lot of authentic places. It was B’s last night and so we felt we should at least eat Japanese and so eventually settled on a Japanese buffet style restaurant (also a must do according to the guidebooks). The food was ok but not spectacular – the best part was probably the soft serve machine for desert.

We said our goodbyes to B as he was leaving at 6am the next morning and headed off to bed. B messaged me this morning to say he had successfully made it to the airport and should now be on route to Singapore. M and I have one more night in Osaka. Thanks S for letting him come along with us – we really enjoyed our time with him!

Until tomorrow …

P, B (for the last time) & M

When in Toyota, what else should one do but go visit the Toyota museum. Having done our research that actually seemed to be the only thing to do. So we walked the roughly 2km to the museum and managed to kill close to an hour there. They do factory tours as well but unfortunately the assembly line isn’t operating on Saturdays so no tour was possible. M did his bit for the environment and generated some electricity without a carbon footprint riding a bike for 60 seconds. He generated 2.6W and the average usually is 2W so he clearly is above the average child that would ride the bike.

M also tried out a few Toyota’s including the ‘dog car’. You could get into most of the cars but a few you couldn’t. For instance they had a type of Toyota that is trying to compete with a Rolls Royce or Bentley – called the Century. It goes for half the price of a Rolls Royce but by everything I read about it (and you can too here – https://www.motortrend.com/news/we-dont-get-it/) it is actually better than a Rolls Royce. It will be used in the new Emperor’s inauguration ceremony. The royal family apparently already own 5 of them. I tell you this because it was locked and had stickers on the doors saying ‘This car is locked and cannot be entered”. But for Safrican royalty (like us), they come over and unlock it and let us get in and play around inside. We clearly looked wealthy enough to be a potential customer (well not M obviously because he was just playing around with everything).

We walked back to the hotel and killed a few more minutes walking around the local golf store (OK – you can sense there really isn’t much to do in Toyota). B went for a mid-morning/early afternoon run (impressive because it was pretty humid by this point). We left the hotel at 2:30pm with the plan to walk towards the stadium and get some food on the way. We walked past a type of combined department and supermarket store (first time we have actually seen something like this) and went in and got a fresh squeezed orange juice. Basically have to mortgage the house to pay for it but it was really good to have it – we all have been craving fresh juice (everything is from concentrate with preservatives).

We went into the Fanzone area to see if they had food in there. It was an indoor stadium with seating with one big screen TV and everyone was sitting quietly watching the game on TV. In fact they were so quiet we didn’t notice the people watching until we turned around to leave!

We found a sushi restaurant near the stadium and decided to have lunch there. When we walked in there was a lot of people shouting at us but we had no idea (as per usual) what we needed to do. Eventually I heard on the waitresses shout ‘Take a ticket” and realised there was a ticket machine to get a table. The number of guests was obvious but the follow up question left us stumped. Fortunately one of the people paying at the till came to our rescue and said ‘table’ or ‘counter’ and pressed the table button for us. Then the only problem we had was knowing when they called our number. We thought we quite clever in watching the other ticket numbers but unfortunately we didn’t factor into account single people sitting at the counter.

We did get to our table and the waitress showed us an iPad and put it into English for us with definitely helped with ordering. Sushi in Japan is basically nigri and maki and just varies by the type of fish. You can get some pretty weird stuff though (see pic).

There is always more fish than rice though (unlike back at home where the fish barely covers the rice). The rice is also slightly warm and moist and the fish always cold. It is quite reasonably priced in comparison to many other types of food. For example this meal cost us less than the burger and chips we had. The sushi is excellent and in particular the tuna. It was a pay by plate type of place and so we just kept ordering until we were full. The sushi is freshly prepared and really is excellent in comparison to what I have eaten before. The whole meal (and we must have had 13-14 plates) cost us R200 ($15) per person. We also got a free ice cream to finish because it was game day and we were wearing springbok shirts. B has been averaging 3 ice creams a day so that helped him keep up his average (he had an ice cream already after his run).

We headed for the stadium and arrived with just under 2 hours before kick off. Entry was pretty painless and quick and we found our seats very quickly too. They were behind the goal line that SA played toward in the first half and so we saw a number of the tries from a very good vantage point. The Japanese are very respectful watchers though. They sit quietly and hardly make any noise while the game is going on. It is quite freaky actually especially since we can hardly talk to the person next to you at the games we watch in SA. The biggest cheer went up just before the game kicked off when they announced that Japan had gone into the lead against Ireland and then again when they won their game there was a massive cheer. By far the majority of spectators at the ground are Japanese (maybe 75% yesterday). A lot of them were wearing Springbok jerseys though (and some kids near us wearing SA scrum caps as well!). They seem big supporters of the Springboks.

They are incredibly welcoming and friendly. I cannot express how much properly. On the way into the game they keep offering to take photos for you and it is absolutely no problem for any of the support staff to stop doing what they are doing and take a photo for you. They have also obviously been told to do ‘High Fives’ to welcome you – they call them ‘High Touch’ 🙂 – and to say goodbye again. They were lined up as we exited the stadium in tunnel format to High Touch us again. Everyone also kept congratulating us on our win (like we had personally packed down in the scrum).

We had a 30 minute walk back to our hotel and stopped on route to buy some snacks as we were pretty hungry by this point.

Until tomorrow …

P, B & M

No I didn’t mean ‘travel by Toyota’, I really did mean travel ‘to’ Toyota because that is where the next Springbok game is taking place. Unfortunately it is not an easy place to get to especially not from Kyoto. It required us to firstly get to the station (just on 2km away). We would usually have walked but my feet told me to call an Uber instead. We then had to take the shinkansen to Nagoya. At Nagoya we took a regional JR train – one heads north and one east. It is easier and quicker to get to where we were staying by going east but unfortunately the train we got onto went north. We had to then change onto another regional line (local and privately owned line – read not covered by our JR rail pass and hence buy another ticket). Our station Shin-uwagoromo was about 1.8km from the hotel so we did the walk.

It felt like we had gotten off in the middle of nowhere. There was very little around – a few houses, some light industrial places, a few office buildings, some paddy fields etc. Really very different to the large cities we have stayed at so far. We got to the hotel at 1:30pm but they wouldn’t let us check in until 3pm. I am pretty sure the rooms would have been available but the rules say 3pm check in so you cannot check in before 3pm. Japan seems to be a rules based society. We went across to a restaurant for lunch and had fried chicken and gyoza. Fried chicken is a local specialty so we felt like we were doing the local thing. Back across the road to sit in the lobby with a whole lot of other Safricans waiting for the 3pm check in time.

The hotel rooms are the smallest room I have ever stayed in. They are supposedly ‘double rooms’ but it would be hard to fit two of me into the bed. Michael and I were originally meant to be sharing (because we could only get one room) but fortunately we managed to get a second room for him. He thought he would sleep on the floor otherwise but that would have been difficult too because there is hardly any floor space. For instance, if I push back the chair from the desk it hits the bed. I have to turn sideways to get up from the desk. The bathroom is so small that when I get up off the toilet I have to step out of the bathroom to be able to turnaround and flush the loo. The bed is like sleeping on a brick but I did manage to have a remarkably goodnight despite that.

M & B went for walk in the afternoon around the town – I decided to stay and catch up on some work and allow my feet some recovery time. They said there was not a lot to see (as we knew already). We went across the road for dinner to a Izakaya restaurant. It is a form of Japanese pub and is one of those things you just have to do if you visit Japan (apparently). We stumbled onto it as it was across the road! You get a private dining room for just you (comes with it’s own door). The idea is to drink as much as possible (it seems) while eating a little. There are lots of drink options. B & I ordered a beer (which we recognised) and when it arrived it was a massive 633ml bottle for each of us. The price was in line with what we had been paying for 300ml so it was actually good value.

Japanese travel sites describe the food at Izakaya as ‘goes well with alcohol’. There is no real style. You just order a bunch of dishes, eat, drink and then order some more. They bring you an iPad to do the ordering on. It was all in Japanese – thank goodness for Google translate. But even that was pretty dodgy at times especially when one of the options came out as ‘Snaked breath’. We gave that one a skip! We did order beef which came partly cooked and then they bring you a small gas burner and plate to cook it to your desired taste. We also had a seafood risoto (which B & I really enjoyed), some kind of chicken (which was very spongy – we hope it was chicken), some kind of minced chicken on a skewer (which came with a raw egg), french fries (never eaten those with chopsticks before). After dinner we went to a Baskin Robbins (US ice cream shop) for desert.

When we walked out M said ‘who thought the hardest part of tonight would be ordering an ice cream at Baskin Robbins?’ It really was. Not a word of English from the servers. You would think it isn’t hard to point to the flavour you want and get them to give it to you. The first time B did that he get a taster of that flavour. We then tried to show we wanted a scoop. But we couldn’t get them to understand 1 scoop only and in a cone. It was quite comical. We did eventually get the ice cream we wanted and then headed back to the hotel for the night.

Until tomorrow …

P, M & B

Yesterday started earlier for B as he had to go to the train station before us. Why you might ask? Because he decided to launder his rail passes which was in his pocket when we did the washing the previous evening. Big signs up at the train station saying “We won’t replace your pass if you lose it, have it stolen or you wash it”. Given the cost, B reckoned it was important to try. Fortunately he was behind a New Zealander who had done the same thing and he spent 5 minutes arguing (and won) and so when B got to the counter they didn’t even argue – they just replaced it.

M & I walked to the train station (about 20 minute walk – 1.8km) and got there with enough time to go to Starbucks to get a coffee for me and sandwich and hot chocolate for M. We then had to take a train to Shinosaka (25 minutes local railway that traveled at 130km/h) and then at Shinosaka we changed onto the shinkansen to Hiroshima (which took 1.5 hours). About halfway in they apologised that the train was running slower than usual due to some work on the line and so we would arrive 3 minutes late into Hiroshima. We actually arrived only 1 minute late – some bloke probably got fired.

At Hiroshima we only wanted to see where the atomic bomb had been dropped. There is a series of monuments at Hiroshima in Peace Park. We could fortunately take a bus there (there is a sightseeing round trip bus from the train station which was included in our rail passes). We got off at the Atomic Bomb Dome. This is the exact place that the bomb exploded at 8:15am on 6 August 1945 above 600 meters above the ground. The ground temperatures below rose to 3000-4000 C and instantly killed everyone in the near vicinity. There are descriptions in the museum of people’s hair instantly on fire, people’s eyes popping out and very other gruesome results. Most of the buildings were instantly destroyed as well but because the bomb explored directly above this building, you can see that some of the structure remained and it has been preserved as a reminder of the bomb exploding.

What really struck me about all the monuments is how they talk about it being a monument to poor leadership and the results thereof. I doubt many other countries in the world would be prepared to so openly admit that it was their own fault. On one plaque they basically said this should stand as a lesson to future leaders and a reminder to all the people of Japan that if you elect and support poor leaders then this can be the result.

Whole park area was full of tourists and a number of school tours. There is a monument to all the children that were killed in the blast (many of them were working in factories at the time to support the war effort). The one school was singing a song at the monument when we walked past. We noticed that many of the school kids were talking to foreigners and then shortly after that a whole group approached us and asked (in English) whether we could answer some questions. They each had a line to ask in English (read off their books) after they introduced themselves. They asked where we were from (and we had to mark it off on the map – they were quite excited when we said SA) and why we came to Hiroshima. They asked us to write down our names and then gave us a gift from their home town and encouraged us to visit. It was very sweet. We regretted to not having taken a photo with them though.

The museum has all the names of the 320000 people killed through the bomb over time – about 120000 of those were immediate. It has photographs of all the ones they could find and brief accounts of their lives and how they were killed. There is also a round room with what Hiroshima looked like in October 1945 which they have compiled from photographs taken by US soldiers. I reckon those soldiers probably died later from cancer of some sort as they didn’t know the effects of the radiation. It is quite staggering to see the damage and destruction. There is also a movie relating the tale of the day from a few different people’s perspectives and an especially moving one from a school kid who eventually died 3 days after the bomb went off. Having seen the destruction I am staggered that it took two bombs to force a surrender from Japan. There is a cenotaph in the park which also has a flame burning in it. They will burn the flame until all nuclear weapons are destroyed.

We headed back to the train station on the bus and saw a little more of Hiroshima on the way back. There was only one remaining bridge after the war and we drove over it on the way back. They said most of the bridges had been bombed out prior to the A-bomb attack but whatever few were left were then destroyed on that day except this one. It was 2pm already at this point and we needed lunch so we had a traditional Japanese lunch from Lion Burger! All three of us really felt like a burger and chips and so that is exactly what we had. They were very nice burgers as well (and probably the most expensive ones I have ever eaten).

There was a shinkansen train on the platform when we arrived but it wasn’t the train we were booked on. We could see that in the non-reserved carriage there were plenty of seats so we thought we would take it instead and get back earlier. Big mistake. It stopped at numerous places on route and eventually arrived an hour later than our original train which left 20 minutes afterwards. In addition, it was slowed down by a ‘Human accident’ on the line so that didn’t help either. We got back into Kyoto at 6:30pm and then walked back to our AirBnB – just stopping on route to buy some stuff for another stir-fry dinner (we did pork this time but still cooked by Michael).

Until tomorrow …

P, B & M

B went for an early morning run and then kindly went to get us some coffee yesterday morning. It seems Japanese don’t drink coffee for breakfast as the ‘Coffee on the Go’ place in the same road as us doesn’t open until 11am and the again it was closed on Wednesdays as well! He did find another place but didn’t think to check the price and came back with R66 coffees (and no it wasn’t the best coffee we have drunk in our lives). I cooked some eggs for breakfast but realised midway through that there are no knives in the AirBnB at all. Tough to eat french toast (which M wanted) without a knife. Only option is to cut the bread with a fork. Really odd that they don’t have knives at all.

We headed out to walk to Kiyomizu-dera. It is a Unesco World Heritage site and was founded in 778 (no I am not missing a 1 in front). The current set of buildings were built in 1633 (modern version clearly). It is a series of shrines. It is quite a walk to get there for a number of reasons. Firstly it was 45 minutes from our AirBnB. Secondly, it was uphill (it is on the hills overlooking Kyoto) and thirdly, it was us and 1 million other people doing the same thing. At least we knew we were going in the right direction!

A number of Japanese seem to make the visit and a lot of them in full traditional dress (both men and women). There are also a lot of school tours. I discovered afterwards that one reason for this is because the Jishu Shrine is there which is dedicated to the god of love (Okunisnushi) and good matches. Apparently there are two stones placed 19 feet apart (we didn’t see this because we couldn’t bring ourselves to pay for entrance in the shrines) and if you can walk between with your eyes closed then you will find love. If you need assistance to do it then you will need assistance to find love (a middle man will be required). Of course the person helping you could also be the person you find love in. Which explains why so many young couples were entering.

We walked back down to through Gion which is the geisha district. As it was late morning there were only a few giesha around (probably on their way to work) and most of the restaurants and bars in the area were closed still. It is alongside the river so was quite a pretty walk. We then went to Edion (which is a large electronics store in Kyoto) – 5 floors and a lot more than just electronics actually. We then headed back into the Nishiki market to Artisugu which is a Japanese knife store in the market. It crafts some of the knives in store even. Some of the knives available for sale cost R100000 ($7000)! I suspect if you bought one of those you could pass the knife down to your grandchild eventually. They had a cheese grater which cost R1000.

It was lunchtime and so we went to find a gyoza restaurant. The place we went to only had 3 options on the menu and basically the only thing that changed was how many pieces you got and whether you got rice & miso soup with it or not. It was a very small place and clearly frequented by locals mainly. It was called Sukemasa (http://sukemasa.kyoto/). They were really good (and filling given we had 12). We were pretty exhausted by this point and so headed back to the AirBnB for a quick nap and rest.

Late afternoon B and I went to the train station to book tickets for our trip today and for the next day. Unfortunately the only place to do that in Kyoto is seemingly at the main station so a 30 minute walk (there and back – hour round trip) was the only option. Feet (and in my case ankles) are very sore! We did stop at supermarket to get ingredients for another stir fry for dinner – stuck with chicken but changed up the vegetables and noodles (went with brown wheat noodles). B & I let M cook again – we were too tired to get up!

Until tomorrow …

P, B & M

We left Tokyo yesterday to travel to Kyoto. We also said goodbye to D as he was flying back to New York. His flight left at 3pm but he also wanted to do some shopping so he headed out at around 9am. The rest of us left at 10am (check out time of AirBnB). We did the 15 minute walk to Omori station (and I was sweating profusely by that time) and then 2 stops on the train to Shinagawa (pronounced, if you’re wondering, as Shi-na-ga-wa – said slowly with almost a brief pause between each syllable). We took the shinkansen (bullet train) from there to Kyoto. It took 2 hours 35 minutes. It is just over 450 kms and included 5 stops along the way. The fastest we tracked the speed was around 290 km/h.

It is very organised to board the train. You know your exact seat and carriage number and your exact board point is marked at a gate. In standard class there are 5 seats across (3 & 2) and so we had 3 seats next to each other. The trains are always on time. Over the whole of last year, the average delay was 42 seconds (not kidding). If the train is over 5 minutes delayed, the railway company will issue you with a formal letter stating the delay and the reasons. This is necessary because if you arrived at work late and stated ‘My train was delayed’ no one would believe you. Imagine that happening in the UK – they would be producing letters every day! If the train is delayed for an hour or more it makes the newspaper. The majority of train delays are due to power failures, typhoons, fires in nature (i.e. not related to the railway). Management don’t survive if the train delay is due to operational reasons of the train company.

We arrived in Kyoto at 1:45pm and as we hadn’t eaten lunch yet we found a restaurant nearby the station. It struck us immediately that Kyoto seems to be a much more modern city than Tokyo. Seems strange to say that but it really does come across that way. The station is like arriving at any major western city station – major mall and station concourse. We had probably our best Japanese food so far for lunch. It was a lunch tray which included a soup, main dish & rice, side dish, salad and desert. B & M had sweet & sour pork as their main dish and I had a seafood plate with a side of sweet & sour pork. Each meal cost around Yen1400 (about R200; $14).

We then headed to our AirBnB. The one downside of Kyoto is that the rail network is not as extensive as Tokyo. It means either more walking or using the buses/taxis. We decided to try out the bus (which was covered by our railpass too). We managed to find the right bus queue and get onto the correct bus. We did manage to get off at roughly the right place too (by counting the stops and seeing how close we were on google maps to the AirBnB). We walked the balance of the way to the AirBnB. It is a much more traditional accommodation. It is entirely made of wood with very thin walls (yes even the toilet). The downstairs consists of a small entrance area, kitchenette, lounge, shower & laundry (in one) and toilet. Upstairs basically has 5 beds separate by sliding bamboo doors. 2 of the beds. We discovered last night that all the light switches are in B’s room. He has the one nearest the door – M & I have to go through his room to exit the bedroom.

B & I went out and found a supermarket (much bigger than the ones we had seen in Tokyo at any point) and bought some stuff for dinner (we did a chicken stir fry which M cooked for us) and breakfast. Early evening (before dinner) we decided to walk to the Nishiki Market which is only 800m from our place. It is where the Kyoto chefs buy their produce. The traditional (food market) side was actually being closed (it seems to start closing at 6pm) so we will need to go back at some point in next 2 days before it closes. The Nishiki market is connected into the Teramachi market and that just seems to go on forever and it is a collection of shops selling absolutely anything and everything. We walked around for about 90 minutes and then decided to head back to make supper.

Until tomorrow …

P, B & M