Awoken at 6am by a couple of young girls wrestling in their bed, the day began. I went down to the foyer and got some bus maps, and with that we were on our way. A whole day bus trip around Kyoto is 500 yen ($5) for an adult, which is good value considering individual trips are 220 yen. the girls aren't classed as human beings until they are 6 in japan, so they were free. We walked up to Nijo castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nijo_Cast le), which is about 10 m...

Caught the Shinkansen from Osaka to Kyoto station. Stupid amounts of people at both stations, but the train ride was insanely short, so that made up for it. It was easily 30 degrees which was a bit of a shock to the system coming from the Australian winter, and in amongst the thousands of people was not fun, but we eventually made it. Train staff have been very helpful so far, even when they are up to their eyeballs in people. Once we caught the subway we found ...

Uneventful landing, which is always welcome. Everyone piled off the plane, and just as quickly piled onto a monorail style train to the customs check-in gates. After lining up for no less than an hour with 3 girls that were hot, tired and didn't want to be waiting in line, we eventually snaked our way to the front. The difference in check-in between the Japanese citizens and foreign passport holders was laughable. the Japanese passport holders virtually had to wa...