Bye to Kyoto

Checked out of the hotel and paid a visit to the bamboo forest in Arashiyama, a short train ride from the centre of Kyoto. Still very hot again today but the bamboo trees went up for what seemed miles so we had a little respite from the sun. There was also a monkey park close by but when we read there was a 20-30 minute hike up steps to get to the monkeys we just didn't have the will to do it in this heat. Stop off for lunch in Kyoto, managed to locate the lockers we'd left our backpacks in at the station (honestly these stations are like rabbit warrens, it's hard to get over what they are like, certainly not like anything you've seen in the UK) and then hopped on the train to Osaka - it's around 35 miles away. I'm not convinced we were on the train we were meant to be on , but we got here. And when we arrived at the hotel our luggage was waiting for us again- what a service.

Piece of trivia for you about the trains - you can push a handle bar on the side of the seat and change the way the seat is facing if you don't want to travel 'backwards!'