Tokyo to Kyoto

This morning was the earliest morning of the tour.  We had to catch the 8am Nozomi Shinkansen to Kyoto.  We were shepherded through the whole process by Dai - sorting all this out ourselves would have been difficult!

It was such an early morning that there wasn't time for the hotel breakfast.  Dai had reassured us there would be a bento box stall at the station - and there was.  He was helping us choose.  I ended up with sandwiches which were amazingly fresh - the freshest pre-packed sandwiches I have ever seen.

You could even get coffee!  It came in a tin container, and it was hot.  It mentioned coffee and milk, but not the sugar. Another Aussie told me it wasn't very good - but we had been warned, especially the Melburnians,  that Japan doesn't do coffee.  Weak bargaining position.

Each of us was told what the numbers next to the Japanese characters on our tickets meant - carriage number, door number and seat number.  So we lined up accordingly.

I studied the seat map so I would know exactly where to go once inside.

In Kyoto, hotel check-in took the usual time.  The hotel cleverly has employed a man to entertain us while we waited (a brilliant idea!)  He had all sorts of Aussie knick-nacks with him - koalas, kangaroo, banknotes, a boomerang.....  

I felt sorry for the two kiwis in our group.  he said he was wearing a NZ flag, but it did look like the Aussie one - an even further insult!

Hotel rooms have been better than expected this trip - as far as space goes I mean. As usual in Japan, everything works beautifully.  And the wifi is very good.