Japan Trip, Day 8

Again up at 5:30. Chloe had no fever! But I had a sore throat 🙁 Camille said that she had a headache. Ugh. We headed down to breakfast. Chloe had corn, cucumbers, rice and orange quarters. She said that the juice hurt her throat. Camille and Rob both enjoyed the caramel pastries. I had a yummy breakfast which included lettuce. After breakfast, we headed up to the room to pack and to shower — who knows when we will again encounter western food and western (though European) showers.

Checking out was easy. The taxi driver came to the door at exactly 11am. The ride to the airport (white gloved driver, lace covered seats — common in Japan) took exactly one hour. It seems like the driver did not take the shortest, quickest route, but a route that would take exactly one hour. I wonder if he was paid by the hour and wanted to give us the institute’s money’s worth?

After we checked our luggage with ANA, we went to find some lunch. In Japan, the menu is usually shown in the window via plastic food samples. We chose a sandwich shop and had egg salad and vegetable sandwiches. Rob had a BET and beer – the bacon was “canadian style”.

After lunch, Chloe wanted to play on the playground. There was a Shisa bus with slide for the kids to play on. At first she was so scared that she cried, but Camille helped her out. They also rode on a Y100 yen Picachu(?) ride.

The 777 flight was entirely full, with ten seats across. I was a middle seat in the bulkhead and was miserable. Chloe and Camille were each given a little airplane toy. At Itami (Osaka International), we joined the restroom queue. There was no indication of Japanese versus Western, so we had some confusing moments. Sure, if there’s no choice, we’ll attempt a Japanese toilet, but since we have no practice, I could image that we might end up with pee on pant legs. Yuck. After picking up our two bags, we looked for the Kyoto station bus. The airport was full of lost people who were blocking every direction.

I had checked earlier and saw that the for bus from the Itamai airport to Kyoto station, Chloe, being under 6, was free, and Camille was half-price. We found the ticket machine, which had all the instructions in Japanese. After watching someone else use it, we figured out you put the money in first. I could read the kanji for Kyoto, so we managed to get the right tickets! Five minutes after we joined the queue, the bus pulled up. We got on and lots more people did too. I was sure that the bus was full, but even more people got on. Seats folded down across the aisles!

The one hour trip to Kyoto station was uneventful. At the station, we had to figure out how to get to the other side of the tracks and to the hotel. Here, it was obvious that you stay to the left when walking, which is against my instinct. We overshot the hotel by only one block and had to ask directions only once. It started to rain hard and we got a bit wet.

At the Fujiya Ryokan, the proprietress showed us to our tatmi mat room and we sat down for tea. Camille was not feeling well and laid down on some pillow. Rob and Chloe went out to get some juice and bread from the 7-11. When they got back, Rob played cards with the girls, then I took the girls, one at a time, downstairs to the shower. When we got back, the futons had been laid out for us, and I went right to sleep.