Day 73 - Wednesday March 27, 2024, Kyoto (Kobe), Japan

Arrival: 11:00 Overnight in port

Last night the ship was rocking, but it did not affect our sleep. In fact, it made it very soothing. The weather changed for the better this morning with blue skies but blustery winds. Ray our cruise director informed us that due to the strong winds now and overnight, Insignia's arrival would be delayed by one hour until 12:00. The deck doors have been closed due to the strong winds. The pool deck is also empty as all the chairs have been moved to the side.

The metropolitan region on the Kansai region of Japan encompasses the cities of Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto with a population of over 20 million.

The city of Kobe has a population of 1.5 million and our Viator tour is to begin in Kyoto 70kms or 43 miles away. We needed to get to Kyoto as quickly as possible as we had booked a seven-hour tour. We decided to grab a taxi and make our way to the Sin-Kobe Station, then take the bullet train to Kyoto to meet our guide, Alex. The journey only took 23 minutes, and the train can reach speeds of 285 km or 185 mph. A Japan rail employee was very helpful and helped us purchase the tickets very efficiently.

Alex greets us at the station platform. Not sure how he knew that we were his guests but perhaps being the only white people in the train might have been an indication. Alex does not own a car and all his tours are either walking tours or include the use of local transportation. After a quick lunch of Kobe beef Australian style, it is off to Tenru ji Temple by train. The temple is in Arashiyama on the western outskirts of Kyoto. Arriving at the temple one must remove shoes before entering. This temple has connections with Zen dating back to the ninth century.

Leaving the temple behind we begin climbing the trail to reach the bamboo forest. There seems to be only one trail which gets congested at times. There is still time for Alex to use his photography talents to create interesting pictures of the two of us. The forest was on Janice's must-see list, and it was worth visiting.

Alex leads us through the forest and then down to the Katsura River before we head back to Kyoto via an old tram. We still have Alex's services for another two hours as we reach the district of Gion but not before stopping along the riverbank to eat our egg salad sandwiches from 7 Eleven.

Gion is Kyoto's most famous geisha district filled with shops, restaurants, and teahouses. Away from the main street you can find traditional merchant houses with small frontage space but extend back from the street.

Having a guide is important especially at night as it was in this case. Alex takes us through back streets on our way back to town which was interesting and a little eerie but fun. We have been finding that a lot of the younger guides like to take us to less touristic places which is fine for us.

It is nearing 20:00 as we say goodbye to Alex. He has given us directions to get back to Kyoto's train station as we are still 70 kms away from Kobe. The main shopping streets of Kyoto (population 1.45 million) are crowded.

To reach the train station we climbed on a city bus. The bus final stop was the train station so we could not get lost. What was interesting was that you paid when you left the bus even if you left from the back door, you needed to walk to the front of the bus and pay.

Kyoto's train station was a lot less busy at this time of the night as we purchased our tickets for the return to Kobe. We decided on a new adventure and took the local train rather than the bullet train. Not the best choice on our part as the return journey was over 90 minutes instead of 22 minutes as we stopped at every station. It was a lot cheaper though.

It was nearly 22:00 when we catch a taxi back to the ship. Earlier in the day we were provided with the address of the cruise terminal in Japanese which came in handy.

We are both tired and need to get up early tomorrow for our visit to Nara.

Here are the modes of transportation used throughout the day:

· Kobe Cruise to Sin-Kobe Train Station - taxi

· Sin-Kobe Train Station to Kyoto Train Station - Bullet Train

· Kyoto to Arashiyama - Local Train

· Arahiyame to Kyoto - Tram

· Kyoto to Gion - Subway

· Gion to Kyoto Train Station - Bus

· Kyoto to Kobe - Local Train (too many stops)

· Kobe to Cruise Terminal - Taxi