Today we are making a trip to Kyoto. Kyoto is the old capital city of Japan and a couple of train rides away. The train stations were definitely busier than yesterday as today is the end of the Golden Week holiday - people were returning from holidays and continuing to shop to return home with gifts (of course, mostly food gifts)!

We started out in Osaka and returned, via the subway to Shin-Osaka, from there we took the Shinkansen to Kyoto. After we arrived there, our plan was to take the subway to the Shijo station in Kyoto and do some shopping, check out the Kennin-Ji Temple and then grab another subway to the Nijo Castle. A complete day in Kyoto we thought.

Well, as it happens, after we checked out a couple of department stores, we stumbled across a shopping side street, little did we realize it was three shopping arcades (Teramachi, Sanjo and Shinkyogoku), all grouped together in the Pontocho area of Kyoto. These places were amazing. They closed down a bunch of streets, covered the area between the buildings and its all shops and restaurants. The walkways were filled with lit store signs over each shop, numerous flags and pennants for decoration. Along with the shops ad restaurants there was also a large popular movie complex (1,000 yen admission - about $12. CDN). This area encompasses about 15 square blocks and I would estimate there are a couple of thousand shops and restaurants here.

We finally did discover, in this area, (Who Hoo!)

two 100 yen stores, and a Mr. Donut, both we had heard were plentiful and everywhere (so we were looking for them!) - it took us 8 days to stumble onto them and amazingly both of them in the same small area! We laughed as the Mr. Donut was lined up - just like Tim Horton's at home! We ate lunch at Mr. Donut, and it was very good. We each had a combo for about $7. CDN. I had noodle soup, the lightest chocolate cream filled donut and a coke (everyone understands "coke"! Eve had cold noodles with shrimp and crab, curry rice and a coke.

Needless to say, it took us all day to weave through the area, and the temple and castle got voted out! However, I believe we will be seeing another temple, in Yamaguchi, in the coming days. After about five or six hours in this area, we reversed our train travels and headed back to Osaka, laden down with numerous packages.

After dropping our wares in our hotel in Osaka, we thought we would go out, check out the immediate hotel neighbourhood (opposite from last night's side). We ended up picking up some food at the Harkyu Department store (on the huge food area of the 7th floor next to mens wear!), to take back to the hotel and eat, while we repacked to get ready for our move to Yamaguchi tomorrow. We purchased some, seafood, rice and vegetable dishes for out supper, for about $12 CDN each.

On our walk back to the hotel we found another shopping arcade, tucked in just East of our hotel, and decided to walk through it on the way back. Lo and behold, about halfway through we found the "Blarney Stone Irish Pub" of Osaka. It was happy hour, so of course we stopped in and ended up having a couple of mugs of Sapporo Draft, fish and chips and chicken and chips (beer and a meal for about $10 CDN each). The food was good and the atmosphere was very cool with an eclectic selection of people and an international beer selection! Our server was a british bloke and we also met a fellow from Vancouver there. We had a nice chat about the Canucks and our travels so far. A nice English speaking interlude.

We're now back at the hotel trying to fit today's shopping into our suitcases (not as easy as it may sound)! It was an interesting day of shopping!

Thursday (tomorrow) off to finally see Haruna and her family in Yamaguchi!