I caught a Japanese Airlines flight from Heathrow early Saturday morning, to arrive in Tokyo early this Sunday morning. The view as we were arriving had an interesting cloud.
We landed at Haneda airport after a 14 hour flight just a little late (due to a slightly delayed takeoff), to profuse apologies from the flight crew. The next two hours shuffling slowly back and forth in the immigration queue with about 1000 other people were not fun. But at least my luggage was ready for me after that.
I next figured out how to buy a ticket for the monorail (I needed to pay cash for this, although every other type of ticket could be bought with a card). I travelled to Hamamatsucho station, changed line, then on to Tokyo station. I found a locker to hold my luggage, and had a coffee while I waited for a colleague who I had arranged to meet up with in Tokyo and travel with to Kyoto. We explored a bit around the station, had lunch, then went and caught the Shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto.
The train was roomy, clean, busy, quiet, and on time. It was also fast, but that was difficult to tell, as it was all so smooth.
It is supposed to be possible to see Mount Fuji from the train, but it was too cloudy.
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| Not Mount Fuji, in the clouds. Look at that blur in the foreground! |
We arrived in Kyoto early evening, checked in to our hotel, then went out for a meal. Sunday evening, many places were full. But my colleague, who had been to Kyoto before, and knew some Japanese, found a lovely little place in a backstreet, where we ordered a set menu. They kept bringing us lots of little plates of wonderful food, and I discovered I like wasabi, in small quantities. (I seem to have missed this staple on previous trips.) The meal ended with a lovely desert of a variety of not-too-sweet ices.
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| Yes, I photographed my desert. |
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