Hong Kong is so conveniently situated that it's just a three and a half hour flight from Japan - about the distance from Heathrow to the south of France. So, to celebrate Scarlet's birthday, we packed our bags and headed for somewhere that's always been on the top of her list, too - Kyoto.
I'm not sure how to describe Kyoto - and Japan - without lapsing into cliché. Let me start by saying it's a fabulous place: if you're at all interested in Japan, I highly recommend it. It's very easy to get around, highly walkable, and the people are incredibly helpful. Special thanks to the man who showed us how to use the ticket machines in the subway (and was going to pay for our tickets, too, until we showed him we had money) and to the man at the noodle stand who saw that we were a bit lost in a sea of kanji and, with some very limited English, helped us order a delicious bowl of soba and tempura.
Some tips, should you find yourself in Kyoto:
Kyoto doesn't have its own airport - the nearest one is Osaka. You can get from one to the other via the very convenient Kansai Airport Express, which takes about ninety minutes. There are two type of seats available - reserved and non-reserved. As you'd probably guess, reserved guarantees you a seat, with non-reserved you take pot-luck. There's roughly a twenty pound difference between the two, so you pays your money and takes your choice, as my dad says. General consensus from the guidebooks and my experience is that the train is rarely full, so you can probably save a bit of money and safely get a non-reserved ticket.
The express takes you to Kyoto station, which is a vast, cavernous space with some shopping malls attached to it. To get to the subway, venture into one of those malls (The Cube) and follow the signs.
The subway is really easy - there are only two underground lines, forming a big cross under the city. When you buy tickets from the machine, the map above the machine will show you the adult and child fare to each station. Plug the money into the machine, tell it how many tickets you want and it'll do the rest. Put the money in first, though. The rest of the city and the surrounding area is serviced by an overground rail network that does the same job as the MTR in Hong Kong or the Underground in London. Fares are really cheap, too - it's a great way to travel.
When you get out of the station, for your own health don't assume that you're safe on the pavement. Kyoto is largely flat and locals are very attached to their bikes, which they ride on the pavement at breakneck (yours, not theirs) speed. This is especially disconcerting at night. There is a special section of the pavement for bikes but, as far as I can tell, no one takes a blind bit of notice of that.
- Industrial: lots of wires, railings, fences, girders, pipes; lots of grey.
- Narrow streets with no pavements.
- Baseball diamonds.
- The countryside we passed on the airport express looks like the kind of place where bodies are dumped.
- Ticket inspector on the airport express turned and bowed to us before leaving the carriage.
- Giggling Japanese schoolgirls/sexualised schoolgirls/AKB48.
- Thigh high boots; thigh high socks; thighs.
- Happy train arriving song and the regretful train leaving song.
- Green tea. Everywhere.
- Pedestrian crossings that chirrup to each other like birds.
- Soba noodles, udon noodles, instant noodles.
- Hello Kitty.
- Kawaii.
- High tech bathrooms; bathrooms everywhere.
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