Sunday is not a fun day, Bangles

After packing the night before, Sunday started with the same apprehension I get everytime I leave Shiga Kogen. I was awake early, so I started making sure the room was all clear of our stuff.

The designated route planner (Me) had to find the best way to get to Kyoto, while giving us enough times to make transfers and eat and explore Kyoto. Unfortunately this meant we had to get the 8:17 bus, so everyone, whether they liked it or not had to be up at an early hour. Mum was up early, and Dean needed a prod but was moving quickly, but our travelling companion was dragging the chain as usual. Considering he hadn't fully packed up, this was not good, but quickly got up to speed as he realised time goes quickly when there's a bus to catch. Before breakfast at 7.30, we organised for our luggage to be takkyubin'd to our hotel in Tokyo. We checked out early, and received little okojo Shiga Kogen pins from the day manager. We then headed downstairs to grab some breakfast. I ate a little less than I did the day before as we weren't going to be snowboarding, but I wished we had later.

After breakfast, we quickly went upstairs to say goodbye and thank you to the staff. Kim, the korean porter wished us well and thanked us for making him laugh, and the other manager who spoke english said thanks to us, while we told him to pass on our thanks for their hospitality to the rest of the staff. We then quickly headed downstairs and went to the toilet, before heading outside to the bus stop (It's virtually out the front of the hotel). After about 10 mins waiting, with a couple of pictures and mucking around thrown in for good measure, we got on the bus (which was on-time, just) to Nagano. It wasn't long before we were winding the course down the mountains towards Yamanouchi, Nakano and then Nagano. Judging by the clock, traffic and such, I gathered that rather than arriving at the expected time of 9.50, we'd arrive around 10 mins earlier (I was write, we hopped off the bus at 9.39). This gave us approximately 20mins to make the next train or wait around for an hour before the next train. Dean didn't want to stress, so suggested we get the later train, but I thought there would be more than enough time to get upstairs, buy tickets and get to the correct track. After getting the tickets, we still had about 10 mins to get downstairs to the Wide View Shinano track. The Wide View Shinano is a limited express train that winds its way from Nagano to Nagoya, via the back country. It goes through about 3 or 4 different valleys, with the forestry/scenery changing from the white birch, to conifer forests to bamboo. Only problem is, that it takes about 3hrs to get from Nagano to Nagoya then 37 mins from Nagoya to Kyoto on a shinkansen. It's a problem, because we didn't get time to grab food from Nagano station, either from a cafe or a station kiosk. We didn't really find anything on the little push cart that we felt like (except beer), so we didn't eat on the WVS. We had a very limited time to switch trains in Nagoya, so except for a bento kiosk on the shinkansen platform, there wasn't really any time to grab anything. By this time, no one felt like eating bento, except Conrad, so we let it go. Well, after getting out at Kyoto, our next main task was to find our way to our hotel, so we could shed our backpacks.

My internal compass/GPS was telling me we were on the South side of Kyoto station, but with everyone else not wanting to rely on that, I went to information desk and asked for directions. I was right, we were on the south side, but I grabbed a map while there as well as some directions. After walking all the way down to east side of the station, we headed down to the subway level and walked all the way through this mall/tunnel that went under the road. After successfully directing us to the hotel, we paid for the room, but were told it wasn't ready yet, so we chucked our backpacks into the storage room, before we headed out in search of food. During my intrepid googling of Kyoto, I had read about a food market, so after consulting the map, we started on a trek to it, deciding to stop for food on the way. About 15mins after walking from our hotel, we came across Nakau, a bowl of something restuarant (looked like a chain) that was open 24hrs, but was cheap. I ordered a medium bowl of Gyuu don (beef on rice) for the princely sum of 250Y. Mum got some Katsudon, and I can't remember what everyone else got, but with the dearest thing seeming to be Dean's set for 650Y. I didn't find it too bad, but after not eating for close to 7hrs, a low flying duck would have been a great option.

We then continued on our expediton to the food market, passing through the ritzy? downtown area of Kyoto. In about 4 blocks, it houses Takashimaya, Daimaru and Marui city (department stores) as well as a lot of flagship stores. We weaseled our way through the crowds (it was awfully crowded for a Sunday afternoon, but learnt it was because a lot of places were having sales), til we found the food market street. This tine lane stretches for abotu 5 blocks, but there are various alleys coming off it. As the video ref will prove, there was a lot of places selling fish, quite a few selling knick-knacks, fruit and veges and various home grown goods. Between the crowds and all of us stopping to look at various times, it took us ages to get through from one end to the other. Some of the smells were divine (Tofu doughnuts, who knew?) while others were horrid (fish/seafood). There were places to buy freshly shucked oysters with lemon for 680Y, others selling dried fish and more. We walked around the food basement level of Daimaru before deciding that it was too expensive, so we walked back onto the street and stopped at a coffee shop selling cake that we'd spotted earlier. Dean, Conrad and I ordered a cake set, while Mum finally got some tea (she's been bereft of a good ceylon tea since Australia) and Whitney got some chocolate cake and iced cocoa. We hung around eating for a little while, before venturing out onto the street.

I probably failed to mention, but I had after walking from the station, I was sweating in the 10 degree "heat", so I decided to leave my coat at the hotel with my backpack, walking around in a pair of Jeans, t-shirt, gloves and beanie. Except when the wind blew, I was fine, but I attracted a few strange looks from the locals (probably thinking baka gaijin). Dean though attracted more than a strange look. A couple of local university students interviewed him, supposedly about "foreigners sightseeing in Kyoto", but I think it was just an excuse to take a few pictures and talk talk with the only blonde hair, blue eyed person for miles.

We kept on going down the alleys, checking out various shoe and clothing stores. There were quite a few coats, but I'm more scottish than I am cold, so I didn't buy any. By this time, Dean and Conrad were wanting to see somewhere a little more traditional/old, so after directing us out of the rabbit warren of the shopping area, I pointed us over towards Gion, an area famous for it's old buildings and geisha (geisha aren't prostitutes as is often incorrectly insinuated, they are entertainers/hostesses). We found some cool old streets with traditional buildings, but weren't willing to pay the exorbitant prices for food just to see geisha. By this time we were getting a little tired, and being after dark, there was only so much detail you could have in pictures before getting too much noise from high ISO shots, so we headed back to the hotel, as we had sort of read that there was cheap beer and food there. It was quite a walk, and if there is an opportunity, I'll check it in Google Maps, because all up, I think we would have walked for about 8kms.

We made it back to the hotel at about 8.15, and sat down at the back of the bar/cafe. Dean ordered a jug of beer for us to share (Sapporo draft for 1150Y), while Mum got a little wine and Conrad got a mega sniff of shochu for very little. Food was quite simple and not really what we had in mind, but I had cornchips and salsa, Dean, Conrad and Mum got mixed pizzas (nothing really wierd on these ones), while Whitney got Takoyaki and potato wedges. By the time we ate and drank, we were all bushed so we went to bed, ready to explore the next morning.