After 35 hours of travelling, we are now in our hotel. It’s very nice, though the food is too expensive (eg $20 for two eggs) so we will be eating elsewhere.

Hotel lobby.

We have a very fancy toilet with an electrically heated seat! and lots of options we probably daren’t try…..

The Japanese people have been really great so far, very helpful and friendly. We came from the airport by train, it was so easy to find and organise. Japan is amazingly clean and tidy, no litter, no black blobs of chewing gum on the floor, even more amazing when you discover, as I did today, that there are almost no litter bins!

The train like everything else was very clean. When it arrived at the airport terminus, we weren’t allowed to get on until a cleaner had gone through it. All the seats automatically revolved and faced the other way (when the train was empty) so that everyone would be facing the direction of travel! A very strange thing to watch. When we got off at the Kyoto terminus, same thing, cleaners, seats revolved. Also, the cleaners appeared to be Japanese, not migrants. They spoke to us and were pleasant and charming!

The whole area we passed through on the train was very full. Lots of blocks of flats, houses all close together, and hardly any unused land. What space there was, was used for growing very tidy crops. Not surprising I suppose when there are 130 million Japanese in a country the same size as NZ.

The shops are lovely, I am very disappointed that I have almost no space or weight allowance in my suitcase for more clothes. I may have to wear lots on the plane. It is a wonderful place for vertically challenged shopaholics, you know who you are! I thought about all of you today, finding lots to suit you, jumpers with short arms, not too long in the body, classy looking, you know how smart Japanese girls always look. Actually, I am not sure I will be able to find anything big enough for me, and Colin definitely won’t!

There are NO fatties here, no one is even a little bit fat. I am hopeful that if I eat Japanese food all week and walk plenty I will lose a couple of kgs before we leave. We found a take away food mall under the hotel, and bought a bento box and some spring rolls and brought them back to our room to eat – $20 for dinner for two, not too bad! Tomorrow I will try the crab foo yung and rice with prawns, the food looks and tastes absolutely delicious, and so light, you never feel stuffed full. And all those displays of plastic imitation food which look so ghastly in Chch, look fantastic here. There are dozens of them.

The mall which our hotel, and the railway station, are part of. Look at that escalator, or escarator as I saw it written. We will probably go up there tomorrow.

And look at the weather – good for November so far. Temperature perfect for walking.

We are going to take at least one bus trip to see some sights, temples and autumn leaves seem to be the main thing.