This morning we took it easy. Tom went out to explore further for the hunting and gathering of our breakfast and came back with coffee, scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes and a hash brown - yes he'd found that Scottish restaurant named for his ancestors of the Clan McDonald. So we ate heartily, knowing that we have dinner planned on our tour tonight and could probably skip lunch - this was a huge breakfast! It was rather sad to be leaving Osaka, it was beginning to feel like home. And the Hilton has been so nice. We caught a local train to shin-Osaka and transferred to the Shinkansen for our 15 minute (yes, only 15 minutes) trip to Kyoto. The trains are incredible, how they arrive on time. We realised that we could've even just stayed on the local train because it was heading to Kyoto and beyond. We hadn't thought of that. A young teenager jumped up and offered me his seat but I thanked him very much and explained it was only 1 station. When we arrived at Kyoto we made our way out to the street that our hotel is on, and by comparing the Japanese characters on the fronts of the building with those on our booking form, I could work out which one was our hotel. We arrived an hour before checkin time, but unlike the Hilton, this hotel wasn't ready for us, so we found a little lounge off reception and sat and read, which was very pleasant. This hotel seems to be more for your average Japanese visitor, compared to the Hilton which seemed to have business people. Here we have slippers just inside our door, and robes on our bed to wear whilst relaxing (which Tom is now wearing as we settle in and wait for our evening tour). The bathroom is like a modular one on a ship - I expect it to be rocking every time I go inside. Just before 4.30pm we wandered down the street to a nearby hotel where we were to be picked up by our tour escort, along with about 18 others - no other Aussies. We chatted during the course of our tour mainly with a delightful Hungarian man who works on robots in China. He told us that the Mercedes B250 is produced in Hungary and that he has worked on the robots that do the gluing and welding. The other person we chatted with was a lovely single mother from California who works in software design in Silicon Valley. Her daughters are both in their twenties. We were transported in a convoy of taxis to the historical area of Kyoto - and when I say historical, we're talking 400 years old! We walked down little narrow streets to a theatre where we were entertained for an hour with 1) a tea ceremony 2) playing of the Japanese harp 3) flower arranging 4) court music 5) ancient comic play and 6) Kyoto style dance. It was really interesting. At the end of it we had a photo taken with a geisha. We then walked through the streets listening to the tour guide explain things about the houses, the life there and the food. He took us to a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) where we were shown around the features of a traditional house, with it's outdoor courtyard, the Buddhist prayer room with a shrine to deceased family members where fresh food is put daily, and the separate tea room where we were treated to a traditional tea ceremony. After that we were taken back to the dining room where we took part in a traditional Zen tempura dinner including miso soup, steamed rice, green tea, and containing no meat, as the killing of live animals was not condoned. Our tour guide then arranged for taxis to collect us - it was a fascinating evening. Oh yeah, did I tell you the toilet seats are heated?