This morning we took it easy, sleeping in and having a leisurely breakfast before checking out at 11 am. We made our way to the station across the road and deposited ourselves in the Shinkansen waiting room, with all the Japanese passengers. The weather has turned wet and cool, thank heavens. I had not brought summer clothes with me. The locals are all dressed up in thick coats and scarves, but I get hot and covered in sweat! So we caught our Shinkansen to Tokyo ...

'Twas an easy start to our day, with our tour guide being just outside our hotel door. (Gosh we've been lucky with the the locations of our hotels). There were three buses from the Sunrise Tours leaving on the morning tour of Kyoto that we had booked on. Also on our bus were the lovely Argentinian family from yesterday, who greeted us like old friends. We also got to talking to a lovely young couple from Perth who are on their honeymoon, having married on Februar...

Today was a big day - and it was only a morning tour, but it was a walking tour! Which would have been fine, one week ago, but alas, not this week! Tom hunted and gathered from the Scottish restaurant for breakfast once again, and mindful of the request for less, returned with something unidentifiable, along with a coffee and a hash brown. The burger, whose name he knew not, had lettuce, and cheese, and a pattie that seemed to be chicken, but also grated carrot a...

Today was a day of rest for us, with no plans set in place. After our Scottish breakfast we set off to navigate our way across to the other side of Kyoto station. And that's no mean feat. We eventually made it, to find Kyoto Tower right there, diagonally opposite. The view from the top (100 metres from the observation floor) was extensive, although the population is only 1.5 million (compared to 2.6m in Osaka city). It was very smoggy, although you don't notice t...

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 t...