Alan B

River boat trip day! Had a very enjoyable day going down the river towards Kyoto fab scenery although alot of the trees have turned now! Although their was one fatal flaw in the morning trip... My choice of clothing. When I got up their was a slight drizzle so I only took my rain coat not my fleece. Jeepers was I cold on that trip! A buffet boat pulled up and I had some white hot stuff, god knows what it was but it was hot! In the afternoon I headed back to central Kyoto and took in a few more shrines/Temples retail outlets ... read more

Greetings, Its been a few days but got a chance to get to a terminal... chuffing cold outside, so needed some warmth. Hiroshima to Kyoto buy Shinkansan (Bullet) Nothing much to report here really changed at Oaska to a local train Got into the japanese habbit of buying a form of bento box for lunch before getting on the train. Got to Kyoto, I had read that the station building was modern and impressive. Boy were they right. You can get a series of escalators to the 12th floor Think of a giant V so Each side you can go up and look down into the concourse. with restaurants on the 8th and 9th floor. and a giant christmas tree, on about the 6th floor. Wait till i can get the piccies uploaded you will see! ... read more

Headed of to the peace park today which is very close to the hotel. The first building is the peace museum which at 40 yen is very good value. The museum starts with a history of Hiroshima how it became a garrison town for the 5th division and teh fact it wasn't bombed at all during the war prior to little boy being dropped. then to 8.15 am eyewitness accounts for what they were doing at the time, it is worth noting that alot of women and children were out on the street demolishing buildings to create fire breaks around the military installations in case of bombing. Well the tears were rolling down my face most people around were reacting to the story as it played out in fornt of us. Many (men) actually walked back ... read more

Retyped from hand written text Right now I am writing this on paper, Drinking the usual Green tea whilst cooling down from a heat I thought was not possible for a human being to endure. Yes I have just had a bath at the Inn. In the traditional manner there is a shared bath but here one bath is all you get. But as with the other it is set to the usual superheated temperatur which in my opinion is only possible with a kettle element. But I have to admit it feels great even if this time it is ordinary water! Right on todats happenings. Got up at the usual 6am I had arranged for breakfast at 7am so I had time to pop to the morning market just across the bridge (for the veg ... read more