After the trip to Nara, we had built up a healthy appetite for some lunch & June was keen to try some Kyoto ramen.
We found a place on the 10th floor of Kyoto train station that was popular with Japanese and foreigners alike. Unfortunately we did not spot the ticket machine prior to waiting in the long queue. It was only after a long wait getting to the front of the queue that we realised this and June ended up with having a heated argument with one of the restaurant staff while attempting to explain our mistake. Unfortunately even though we were at the front of the queue the staff member kept on bypassing us by bringing in the customers behind us.
Japan has a reputation for unrivalled customer service but in the case of this particular staff member it was seriously lacking.

After lunch we went down from 11th floor to ground floor by long escalator. We also had a bit of a scare when Nige’s new shoes slipped at the top of the esculator. If you make it to Kyoto, we recommend the train station escalator journey from the 11th floor.

The escalator journey on the way down from the top of Kyoto train station.

After that it was time to find a cafe to catch up with the video edits and stuff. All the cafe’s around Kyoto train station were full, so we recommend finding a cafe in the centre of town, where they are not so busy.

View of Kyoto tower in Japan.

Finally it was time to head back to the hostel. It was modern and nice hostel with a very nice cosy room that also included basin. The toilets were also on our floor but all the showers were on the ground floor.
That night there was an event of making Temari Sushi. Temari means Japanese style small handball. It was fun to make it, looked nice and delicious and a bargain at 500 Yen per person.

Temari sushi event at the hostel in Kyoto, Japan.

Hostels can offer a great alternative to business style hotels and in this case the hostel was modern, clean with good buffet breakfast and the bed was very comfortable.

We had good sleep at the nice hostel room.

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We left Kochi for Osaka, but would be stopping at Okayama for a look around on the way.

Train from Kochi to Okayama, Japan.

Again the train journey back to Okayama was spectacular with the highlight being the crossing of Seto bridge.

We decided to walk in Okayama city. Unfortunately there was not enough time to look at Okayama castle, Korakuen Japanese Garden etc,so we decided to walk around the Shotengai, the local shopping street.

Okayama is a bit of a quirky city with interesting bits that stand out like the police office at the side of a canal and some of the street clocks.

Views from the centre of Okayama, Japan.

We entered local small canteen style of restaurant and had udon noodle and curry rice. Reasonable price and homemade taste and the restaurant had a nice authentic retro style to it.

Authentic style restaurant near Okayama station, Japan.

Along the walk Nigel’s shoes decided to die with the sole detaching, so we both decided it was time to upgrade / replace our shoes.
Because we gave our shoes to the shop for recycling we were awarded a 5% discount. We also attempted to get the shoes for duty free but made the mistake of wearing the shoes prior to claiming the duty free discount, which made duty free null.

The correct procedure would have been to take the shoes in their box to the duty free first and then changed the shoes at the shop and handed the old shoes over for the 5% discount.

We also noted that the Okayama’s restaurants and bars looked very affordable and good value.

After that it was time to move to Osaka.

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Nagano station had spent a long time refurbishing and recently reopened into a modern sophisticated station. Lots of different kinds of Nagano food and suvenior shops in the station buildings.

There were several big mascots there to promote new national park in Nagano. Nige was so excited that he ran up to dance with them.

We had nice Japanese style lunch with friends too. Try Nagano food if you have chance, it’s delicious

Fish market inside Nagano station buildings, these are carried from Japanese ocean.

Had nice dinner with friends, this is called ‘Kushiage’ or fried skewers.

We had a great Japanese lunch and dinner, met some very nice new friends and finished up with a coffee at Nagano station’s starbucks while waiting for June’s Mum to pick us up.

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