Tuesday 8th April Onwards to Kyoto!

 This tour has been very full activities or days spent travelling, so I'm finding keeping the blog up to date much more difficult than on previous tours.  Sometimes we have had Wi-Fi on the coach, but this has not been the case on the trains which is where I hoped to be able to edit some of the photos. So apologies if some photos are a bit poor, it's just that I haven't had time to crop or improve them in any way. We are seeing so much, I really feel I need to 'put pen to paper' as soon as possible before there is even more to remember!

Back on the coach we make our way to Hiroshima train station, from where we will board the bullet train to Kyoto.

We have time for a coffee in Starbucks ( sorry Jo and Ant, no more signs of a Costa) and are surprised to see a smartly dressed businessman place his laptop and bag on the table next to us, before disappearing to line up for no coffee some distance away.


It's a sign of just how safe this country is, he has the confidence to know that his belongings will not be stolen even though they are in full view.
Our journey isn't as far this time , just 1h 36 and around 250 miles, although it doesn't look that far on the train map, and the time passes quite quickly as there is a better internet connection this time. We zoom along the flatter countryside near to the coast, with occasional glimpses of the heavy industrial sites and steelworks around Kobe. The nearer we get to Kyoto, the surroundings become much more given over to rice fields and we can see that the little,plants are beginning to spout in the warmer temperatures here.


We have our last minute instructions from tour guide Trevor ( not my Trevor) as we all need to be up and out of the train in the very short time it will stop at Kyoto station, so making sure we have not left anything in our seats, everyone lines up ready to go the second the train doors open, and we exit in record time!
Our hotel this time is a large rather drab looking modern building, however once inside it is quite impressive, another interior in smart, minimalist Japanese style, with lovely bamboo coloured wallpaper on the very long corridors.

We have a room on the 9th floor, which Trev is thrilled to discover has a view right over to where the bulletin train line approaches the station and we are amazed to see several of these trains go each way in the 10minutes we stand watching. Trev would be happy to sit watching the trains all day, but in our action packed tour, we need to be freshened up and ready to go out again for a walking tour, followed by a traditional Japanese dinner.








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