Ruth and Adele's Trip: KYOTO

After my 4 weeks back in the West, Mum flew back to Japan with me and we travelled together for 10 days. Mum got rather addicted to ume-shu (plum wine), going to the onsen (naked hot baths), staying in ryokan (Japanese-style inns) and wearing a yukata!

After a 30 minute flight from Jersey to Gatwick, a mad rush across London to Heathrow, a wait of a few hours, a 12 hour flight from Heathrow to Japan, our plane finally landed at Kansai Airport at around 3pm on the 21st (in all, we'd been travelling for just under 24 hours). By 6pm we'd navigated the airport, got a train into Kyoto, caught a taxi and checked into our hotel. By 7pm, we were off exploring what Kyoto has to offer - we walked for miles, and even took in a shrine or two before dinner!

Ordering a litre of wine between the two of us after all that travelling was possibly a bit of a mistake, but we managed to make it back to the hotel via a taxi (bearing in mind our hotel was just round the corner...but I couldn't remember which corner!), and then sat in the Hotel bar with another drink!

The next two nights were were at The Three Sisters Ryokan, and before we headed for Fukui, amongst other things we explored several more shrines, ate some fantastic food, went to see a demonstration of 7 Japanese arts at Gion Corner, got stuck out in a thunderstorm and torrential downpour, drank far too much, saw a few geisha, and even went on a half day coach tour (a big mistake!).