The day after our visit to Kawagoe, we left the Tokyo area and set off in the direction of Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. This was to be our first time on a bullet train, so the boys, young and old, were very much looking forward to the trip.
Since we were travelling with the Japanese Rail Pass, we could only use the Hikari train, which is not the fastest, most modern Shinkansen but pretty good anyway. Hikaris are certainly much better than the pendolinos of Finnish Railways (VR), which to put it bluntly are rubbish.
Thomas waiting for the train.
We first went to Osaka, where we were to meet some of Yuko's relatives. Osaka gave me a nice feeling, even though we were only there for half a day.
We spent some time visiting the Osaka Aquarium before heading off for dinner. Yuko's family took us to a restaurant with something for everyone. Thomas, in particular, who is rather conservative in his food tastes, had a great time, and so did Henry, as the photo below shows. Unfortunately, there aren't many photos of Yuko's family - someone ran down the battery of the camera taking hundreds of photos of fish.
Henry in his element!
H-M and the latest addition to Yuko's family.
Yuko's mother, still in good health, and a granddaughter-in-law.
Osaka was the scene of some excitement since we 'lost' the boys. They were given permission to go to the Pokémon shop but as a result of a misunderstanding, no adult knew exactly where it was. The difficulty was that we had been enjoying ourselves so much that no-one had followed the time and now we were in a rush to get to the station, with no little boys in sight. The shop was surprisingly far away but all's well that ends well. The boys get plus points for initiative shown in finding the place, it was not easy to find, but minus points for being vague when asking for permission to head off on their own.
With everyone rounded up, we headed off to Kyoto, where we were to spend the next few days. Courtesy of Mitch belonging to some kind of timeshare system, we stayed in a place much grander than normal, on the outskirts of town near the Kyoto International Conference Center, famous for the Kyoto Protocol. Our station was at the end of the line, Kokusaikaikan.
Thomas, who was rather impressed with the facilities and beginning to quite like being in Japan.
Emolga - the cause of some agitation!
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