Hello Kyoto

We have successfully arrived in Kyoto. Headed for the station in good time to catch the shinkansen ( bullet train).
We left plenty of time before the train to be there in good time and to be able to shop for food to take with us. These train stations are just enormous, they make Paddington Station look like Toy Town! Chris and Carys purchased a chicken and rice bento box ( a single portion take-out often used for lunch), and then we headed to our platform.

I can't rave enough about these trains, absolutely on time, spotlessly clean and no one on their mobiles. To put into context our journey was just over 2 hours (roughly Cardiff to Paddington) but we actually traveled double the mileage! Carys and Chris loved the bento box.

Arrived in Kyoto, small metro journey and at our hotel. Slight blip, Carys was in charge of the map reading and took us to the Premio Vista Hotel, however there are two of them in Kyoto and it was the wrong one!! She said she's not doing the map reading again ( to be fair she's been pretty good at it so I'm sure she'll pick it back up again). On the plus side we had no luggage to cart around with us. In Japan there is a service called Takkyubin, it's a luggage forwarding service. We packed our cases in Tokyo yesterday and the hotel sent them onwards to the hotel in Kyoto. It meant we had minimum stuff in backpacks overnight , and to carry today. When we arrived at the hotel our cases were waiting for us in our room! How amazing is that!!