It is fairly well located without being particularly close to any rail transport. This was fine when the weather was good but meant 5-10 minutes walk in the rain to the closest subway. There are two grocery shops across the busy road.

Two hundred metres back towards Kyoto station is Shousei-En garden.

67 Hirai-cho, Kawaramachi-Gojo Sagaru, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan
TEL: +81-(0)75-343-6660
FAX: +81-(0)75-343-6667

From the rooms with south facing windows you can see the Hep Five ferris wheel which is particulary pleasant at night with lights slowly cycling through a series of patterns.

2-11-5, Sonezaki, Kita-ku, Osaka-shi Osaka 530-0057
TEL.81-6-6312-1271
FAX.81-6-6312-7283

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The hotel is a mix of western style rooms and Japanese Ryokan/Minshuku. The rooms have a very compact shower and toilet but I much preferred the large public baths segregated by sex. There is a basic restaurant but we always ate out so I can’t comment on the food.

It is well located in the North East part of Kyoto and very accessible by Subway and Bus. It is very close to Heian Shrine (the large red object up and left of the hotel in the map below.

91 Enshojicho, Okazaki, Sakyoku, Kyotoshi, Kyoto 606-8344
Telephone (075)771-0225
Facsimile (075)771-0226

The western room was in the main building facing the street and had a good view of the Heian Shrine from the window. The beds were quite small and nothing special. The 100y for 10 minutes of censored porn on a little 12″ television seemed tacky but is very popular in Japan.

The Japanese style room was a basic 9 mat room with bedding in a cupboard that we set up ourselves. The main difference between a minshuku and a ryokan is that the latter is a more inclusive experience and usually includes meals.

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We collected our luggage from Kankaso and headed to the train station by taxi. Half an hour later we were in Kyoto station and due to the prevailing rain, we decided not to spend half of the day continuing on to Himeji to see the largest castle in Japan.

After dropping off our luggage at at the Kyoto Travellers Inn we walked into the town centre to check out the huge covered shopping area and grab a bite to eat at a great bar I found when I was in Japan last year.

We spent the afternoon wandering around the ??? temple then down through an older area of Nara before making our way back to our ryokan for the evening.

The garden at Kankaso was spectacular and we had booked the premium room of nine with our own beautiful garden right outside our window. From the moment we arrived we were swept away by the immaculate service even though less than a handful of English words were exchanged.

The room had its own private wooden bath and we had a leisurely time relaxing before donning our yakata (house robe) before dinner which was served in our room.

A keiseki dinner was part of the accommodation and we sat down to a veritable onslaught of amazingly presented dishes. It truly was a feast of a lifetime and it seemed almost never ending. It was almost with a sigh of relief that ninety minutes later we swallowed the last tasty mouthful before the tables were cleared and our beds prepared.

We felt a bit foot sore from all the walking over the last few days so we had a nap in the afternoon before heading into Shinjuku for more bright lights and a simple meal in a cafe. $10 buys soup, small salad and a crumbed pork cutlet with Japanese curry and rice so you really can eat well for very modest cost.

Unlike Australia, many adults play computer games in Japan and you see lots of people playing Nintendo DS on the trains to pass the time on their journey. It is a shame we didn’t bring Pokemon Diamond with us as we could have downloaded an exclusive pokemon using the wireless connection around the shop.

When the doors opened there was a rush to get into the store and see what was on offer. Very quickly Emma’s basket began to fill as did the shop and it became increasingly difficult to move around as a large throng of adults and children excitedly grabbed products off the shelves.

We eventually escaped after spending over 22,000 yen on merchandise. Unfortunately there was a little less range of products available than when I visited the Pokemon Center last year and only a few tshirts which were too small for our boys.

We returned to our hotel to drop off the loot before heading out again to Shibuya for more shopping. Things were a little calmer around Harajuku station than Sunday and we had a better opportunity to browse. Emma found an incredibly ostentatious black jacket with elaborate white brocade trim but baulked at the 40,000 yen price tag.

We traipsed through five floors of toys at Kiddy Land covering a bewildering array of old, new and incomprehensible interests. We escaped without purchasing anything!

In the evening we went to Roppongi and found a little restaurant in a back street. We had to take off our shoes to sit at lowered tables with a foot well under the table.

Despite the staff speaking basically no English, we ordered off a quirky Jinglish menu and soon found ourselves feasting on tuna and octopus sashimi before tucking into a mixed hot pot of meat and vegetables. As we finished off the light and tasty contents, the waiter then topped up the broth before adding noodles and rice for us to polish off. Emma polished off three jugs of sake and we left feeling extremely content.

At home, we warm sake by putting a container in a microwave, but in Japan they have a dedicated machine for the purpose.

After our failed attempt to catch up with my friend Steve the day before, we arranged to meet at 2pm near Harajuku. This time there were no problems and after a quick bite to eat we walked to Harajuku station to see the people who get dressed up in all sorts of strange and fancy costumes. Many of the people dress up like characters from anime and manga.

Since it was a nice clear day we decided to go to the top of the Metropolitan Office building to see the city and try and see Mount Fuji. The mountain is very big but it is very hard to see from Tokyo as it almost always cloudy and/or hazy.

We said goodbye to Steve at nearby Shibuya and found a nice restaurant for dinner. Even though no-one spoke English we smiled and with a bit of finger pointing we had a wonderful meal which consisted mostly of little kebabs. We were so full by the time we ate everything!