To Kyoto

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Tue 24 Oct 2017 22:47
To Kyoto
 
 
 
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Steps away from the Arrivals Lounge at Kansai (Osaka) Airport is the fast rail link station. Flashing our rail tickets, we were off within ten minutes of collecting our cases. All a wonder to us that the trains are so precise, we see odd times like :32, :27 etc. and to the dot that is exactly when they leave after giving passengers about thirty seconds to get their act together.
 
 
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The gal who appeared can only be best described as a refrigerator on wheels. Our journey - an hour and twenty minutes through varying scenery with three stops.
 
 
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 Out of the station and over the very long bridge before we saw a big wheel on the land side.
 
 
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Tall buildings and housing estates – could be anywhere in Europe.
 
 
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Supersize blocks of flats.
 
 
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Crossing the Yodo River.
 
 
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Kincho Stadium, capacity 19,904.
 
 
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Typical town – Higashisumiyoshi – love the names here.
 
 
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The Uji River.
 
 
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Big balls and a port on the left.
 
 
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A kindergarten with a Bear on the sign.
 
 
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Closer to Kyoto the buildings become more skyscraper.
 
 
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I missed the sign as we whizzed by but under the blue tarpaulins is where you can buy topsoil......
 
 
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A more unusual shaped house.
 
 
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Rice fields next to a huge Aeon Shopping Mall.
 
 
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Allotments, whatever next.
 
 
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A plant nursery.
 
 
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Hal an hour later we were standing in the magnificent Kyoto Station.
 
 
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An eleven minute walk from the station and we were in our new digs, this time an actual backpackers. Beds settled on our very firm mattress. The comedy is, we can only open one case at a time on the bed and the pair of us move around the room like some kind of a bizarre tango. The bathroom, although it has a fancy toilet, the seat wiggled and I never did find the heater switch. Dereliction of duty, First Mate, poor show. Have you ever seen a towel the size of a face flannel used with such menace, Bear has.
Run Bear run.
But the room isn’t big enough to get out of a small, single shuffle.
See Pepe’s face turn puce.
 
 
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After exploring the station, finding a wonderful set meal, we cross the road by the Kyoto Tower and we bimble back to our digs.
 
 
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Passing the tower we see lights in a building on a crossroads, a sumptuous Japanese chariot..............just goes to show we never know what’s at the next.....we couldn’t find out about this amazing means of transport as the information board was all in spaghetti.
 
 
Journey 
 
Not sorry to be tucked up on our board-like mattress after today’s journey of 1042 miles (that would have taken at least 24 hours by car or 18 hours by train), door to door on one shuttle bus, one coach, two flights, a train and the eleven minute walk which took us a total of eight and a half hours. 
 
 
 
 
ALL IN ALL QUITE A DAY OF TRAVEL
                     REMARKABLY EFFICIENT