Japan

Narita, Tokyo
Spending the first night in a hotel (Nikko Narita)  near the airport was a stroke of genius for a novice arriving in Japan after a long flight.  It was a great stress remover. Straight onto a shuttle bus, a  pleasant room with internet, a shop stocking the required connectors (for European to Japanese plugs) and a sumptuous breakfast went a long way towards setting me up for my journey to Kyoto.

One has to wonder why.

View from the breakfast room

Collection of the pocket wifi  was painless.  It's a shame that it keeps reverting to "out of range".  I can get it back but it takes about 10 minutes each time so I've decided that I'll abandon it.  It would be an expensive mistake if the process hadn't been worth its weight in gold for making me discover before I left home that the bank had blocked international transactions on all my cards!  

Validating the Japan rail pass was a little more time-consuming but still efficiently done.  They also reserved my seats to Kyoto.  Instead of changing at Tokyo for the Kyoto Bullet train, a lovely lady booked me to change at Shinagawa, the first or second stop on the Narita Express after Tokyo. She said that would be less hectic and it was very easy so she was right!  Half the train continued to Shinagawa from Tokyo and the other half went somewhere else so it was good to have someone who knew what they were doing.

Arrival in Kyoto
Continuing on my 'make it easy on yourself'' journey, I took a taxi to the hotel because I read somewhere it was a bit tricky to find.  Taxi ranks are somewhat different outside stations here!  Whoops! 

 I could understand why the taxi driver was not a happy chappy.  I don't know how long it takes them to get a turn!  I'm not entirely sorry for being so selfish all the same.  When you don't know where you're going, a short walk can turn into a long nightmare!  My room at the Almont Hotel overlooks the rooftops and has a nice Japanese feel to it.Should I go downstairs for a Japanese bath? Nah, not tonight.  Go out and explore a bit instead.  I'm definitely somewhere different.  I love the bird sounds the pedestrian crossings make. And they differentiate between north-south (kyu kyu) and east-west (cuckoo, cuckoo) (or vice versa).  (Sorry about layout.  Don't like this blog tool!)

From my window.

In the 'trip to the bath' gear.

Out in the world:reference point so I don't get lost .