It is starting to feel like the trip is winding down, which is a good thing, because we've packed so much into the last 3 weeks, that we're all feeling a little exhausted. Almost ready for another holiday. Today we made our final city hop of the trip. We're finishing our holiday with 3 nights in our favourite city, Kyoto, before flying home on Wednesday night.

We bid farewell to our final Tokoyo Inn for the trip this morning. Frustratingly, we've now stayed in enough Toyoko Inns across the country that we've earn't a free night's accommodation. Its not going to be of much use to us now. Perhaps on the next Japan trip.

After the Toyoko Inn breakfast and bag packing we checked the train timetable to realise that Shinkansens only run from Kobe to Kyoto each hour, so we had 3 options:
1. Make it to Shin-Kobe station in under 30 minutes (which is 29 minutes brisk walk, or one crowded subway journey from our hotel).
2. Travel to Osaka and make between 3 and 5 train changes to get to Kyoto.
3. Wait an hour and a half for the next train from Kobe to Kyoto.

We decided to try our luck with the 30 minute shinkansen option. We eventually found the subway station, and bought the tickets we needed, which got us to Shin-Kobe with 12 minutes to spare. Veronica reserved the shinkansen seats, and we made our way to the train platform. The wrong train platform. Had we got on the trains pulling up at that platform I'd be writing this blog entry from Hiroshima, or somewhere even further West. Luckily we realised our mistake, and doubly lucky that Shin-Kobe is a very quiet train station, so we were able to power walk to the correct platform with a minute or two to spare.

We got on the train, and almost had the carriage to ourselves. Catching bullet trains is evidently very different (and much more preferable) late in the morning compared to the afternoons. After a very short train journey (25 minutes, with one stop at Osaka) we arrived in Kyoto.

If hell were full of Japanese people, I imagine it would be a lot like Kyoto train station. Its just permanently crowded, everyone is always in a rush, and its generally just unpleasant. Not wanting to spend more time in Kyoto station than we absolutely had to, we went straight to the information counter. We decided that since the hotel was going to be a very considerable walk from the train station, that we'd catch the bus. I went to the English information counter, and asked for an English bus map. That's all. There is such a thing as being too helpful. After 5 minutes of digging through her piles of English literature on everything to do with Kyoto, she bundled up a large stack of paper and brochures, and and handed me one of everything, I left the information office with a large armful of paperwork (which I had to sort through to find the damn bus map). Finding it eventually, we found the bus route that we needed, and as we exited the station, one of the buses we needed was just pulling up. Good timing, since the last time we tried to catch a bus here we were waiting 30 minutes for the right one.

As per Japan public transport regulation, the interior of the bus was heated to about 40 degrees Celsius, so it didn't take long before I was opening windows to get some fresh air. Some of the other passengers began directing rather annoyed looks in my direction, I assume because I was doing the wrong thing by letting icy cold 10 degree air enter their nice cozy mobile sauna, but quite frankly I wasn't going to stand there and sweat, in the middle of Winter.

After walking from the bus stop, through the now very familiar Teramachi shopping mall area, we found our way to the hotel. Since check-in wasn't until 3pm, we dumped the bags at the hotel (which is one or two rungs more classy than the Toyoko Inn's we've become so used to on this trip). We walked back to the main shopping area in Kyoto (less than 5 minutes walk from the hotel) to look around and fill in time. Another big compliment that I can give the Co-op Inn so far is its location. It is, in my opinion, positioned in one of the best locations for a hotel in Kyoto. Right near shopping and a massive group of restaurants, as well as subway station, bus stops etc making it a really good base for exploring Kyoto. Why oh why didn't we book this instead of the Budget Inn for our first stay in Kyoto at the start of the trip? Live and learn.

After shopping and browsing we decided to grab some lunch. When walking from the bus stop originally I saw a Yayoiken restaurant, which was our favourite restaurant from our original Japan trip in 2008. The original restaurant was a little further North, near the Gimmond hotel, but we decided to try this one since it was close. I'm guessing they are a franchise, because aside from a different seating layout, the restaurants, decor, menu, and food, were exactly the same. In a word, delicious. Angela had what I can only describe as the biggest chicken nugget meal I've ever seen in my entire life. Thinking it was going to be 5 small chicken pieces she ordered it. When it arrived at the table, her meal consisted of 5 very large fried chicken pieces, plus the rice and all of the side dishes that she was too full to even attempt. She got through about 3 of the 5 pieces of chicken. The meal was absolutely massive, and at around $7, unbeatable value.

After lunch, some more slow wandering and exploring to let lunch settle, followed by deserts. On our first Japan trip we found a crepe place, so when we discovered it was still there, we had to try it again. I had the same as the girls had, which was a crepe with vanilla ice cream, chocolate cream, chocolate sauce and strawberrys, and Veronica has crepe with banana, chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream, and custard. Sufficiently filled with crepe, we went back to the hotel to rest once we'd checked in. Everyone slept, except for Charlotte. She's quite proud of the fact that she was the only one able to stay awake.

Once dinner time came around, I found myself suffering Donkey Withdrawal Anxiety (DWA), since my meal at Kobe yesterday. Out of sadness, I googled Bikkuri Donkey, only to find to my absolute delight that there was one within 10 minutes walk of the hotel. That was the dinner decision sorted then (even if I had to go on my own).

My family decided to accompany me, and after a short wait for a table we were led upstairs through equally wacky and bizzare JapAmerican décor to our table. Less scenic than the Kobe vista we were given last time, we were stuck in a booth in a corner without a window. Didn't matter.

Proving yesterday's lunch wasn't just a fluke, our dinner was absolutely superb, and one thing I love about Japanese restaurants (well all the ones I've been to anyway) is the speed which the food comes out. Sitting and chatting is fine, but I can't really stand having to sit and wait for a meal for an hour after I've ordered it, to the point that I don't remember what I ordered. Japanese restaurants, probably because of the number of customers that they have to accommodate, are incredibly efficient at seating you, taking your order, delivering the food, and checking whether you have everything you need to enjoy your meal. Even though the restaurant was absolutely packed, and there were 2 floors of tables at this restaurant, our meals were on the table within 15 minutes of ordering them. Gotta love that.

Absolutely full to the eyeballs, we walked back through the shopping malls, many of which were beginning to close since it was 8pm. After some 100 yen shop shopping (with me standing outside like an idiot for most of the time) we decided to call it a night, and return to the hotel.

Charlotte, for the 2nd time on this trip, and also coincidentally the 2nd time in Kyoto, fell over. Walking through the back streets in the dark, she found an uneven patch of pathway, and over she went. A cut hand, a bleeding knee and a ruined pair of trackpants with a large hole in the knee was the extent of the damage. She fell pretty hard though, so I'm guessing if it wasn't for the trackpants that hole would have been in her knee instead, so we have that to be thankful for. I ended up carrying her the last block and a half to the hotel, where we cleaned up her knee and went up to our room for much needed sleeps.