Day 5: Hiroshima to Kyoto: On the fast-track
Caught the Bullet train to Kyoto. Wow, it’s fast like scary fast – poor Kerry felt a bit ill. All train personnel would enter the carriage and bow to everyone then move through, bowing again as they left. We had to change trains at Osaka where we met a load of American tourists who travel around to really unusual places like Mongolia and Peru (Jimmy Carter was mentioned for some reason). Got out of Kyoto station to more f*cking rain which was a bit stressful as the hotel map was useless. Had walked with all our bags in the wrong direction until I asked a local. Had to get the subway as it was so far. Hotel room was on the 13th floor and very comfortable. Getting used to the electronic toilets. Finally found a good photo developing shop which did digital photo to CD transfer. Whilst the photos were being sorted we found an amazing ‘character’ shop with every weird Japanese plastic model going if you didn’t get the right vending toy. Another good purchase was a cheap suitcase with wheels to hold all our souvenirs.
After dropping off the suitcase we returned to Kyoto’s main shopping/restaurant stretch and found one of the coolest shops ever. More movie, TV, games and character stuff that could have wiped out all my spending money and more. Moomins, Star Wars M & Ms, old Nintendo stuff I’ve never seen before plus the cream of the crop a copy of the sample drug suitcase from the police convention scene in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas! Couldn’t face any traditional squid or tentacle restaurants so resorted to a place with an Elvis dummy and old motorbike in the window. This US diner had the best burger and Cream Soda I ever had whilst enjoying the Blue Suede Shoes as a soundtrack and James Dean on the walls. Managed to find an Internet cafe but they do things alittle differently round here. Looked a bit sleezy from the outside with silhouettes of sexy geishas. Stepped inside and paid for 2 cubicles which had an internet PC, a Playstation 2 and TV plus a huge exec chair squeezed in. Your normal punter also had access to a big library of manga comics, all geared up to teenage boys who wanted a bit of privacy if you know what I mean. Had to give up after two attempts with the keyboard changing into kanji text and accidently deleting a load of blog entries - very frustrating and bit of a waste of money (all blogs now done after the holiday). Back at the hotel, Jap TV is getting weirder for the weekend. Manga was on a lot of channels around tea-time then it seemed every show had to have a puppet as a co-presenter.
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After dropping off the suitcase we returned to Kyoto’s main shopping/restaurant stretch and found one of the coolest shops ever. More movie, TV, games and character stuff that could have wiped out all my spending money and more. Moomins, Star Wars M & Ms, old Nintendo stuff I’ve never seen before plus the cream of the crop a copy of the sample drug suitcase from the police convention scene in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas! Couldn’t face any traditional squid or tentacle restaurants so resorted to a place with an Elvis dummy and old motorbike in the window. This US diner had the best burger and Cream Soda I ever had whilst enjoying the Blue Suede Shoes as a soundtrack and James Dean on the walls. Managed to find an Internet cafe but they do things alittle differently round here. Looked a bit sleezy from the outside with silhouettes of sexy geishas. Stepped inside and paid for 2 cubicles which had an internet PC, a Playstation 2 and TV plus a huge exec chair squeezed in. Your normal punter also had access to a big library of manga comics, all geared up to teenage boys who wanted a bit of privacy if you know what I mean. Had to give up after two attempts with the keyboard changing into kanji text and accidently deleting a load of blog entries - very frustrating and bit of a waste of money (all blogs now done after the holiday). Back at the hotel, Jap TV is getting weirder for the weekend. Manga was on a lot of channels around tea-time then it seemed every show had to have a puppet as a co-presenter.
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