Big city and a big night

I left Kyoto this morning after watching a light snow flurry from the hotel window as I ate breakfast and chatted with a pleasant young Chinese man. There are many Chinese travelling in Japan at the moment because of the Chinese New Year holiday.  Breakfast was on sale from the reception counter - 600Y ($8) for a bread roll, some butter and jam, a juice and a container of flavoursome additions. I chose a container which had peanut butter, some fish and pickled ginger!

I had plenty of time, so walked to the station with my bags which took about an hour including a stop at a big shrine.  I bought a delicious bento box of lunch (rice, meat, vegetables) to eat on the train and then easily found my way to the platform. Trains were coming along every 6 to 10 minutes, and right on time, mine arrived at 12.02pm.

I tried to capture some photos to show the endless houses, cities, businesses, allotments, factories that stretch the whole way from Kyoto to Tokyo.  The photo here is the most I managed to see of Mt Fuji. It would be stunning to see it on a fine clear day.

I was met by Satomo Suzuki from Toda who helped me check into my final hotel near the Shinagawa Station, then we went on an adventure to the Ginza area - the famous area of boutique shops and expensive department stores, neon lights and amazing modern architecture.  We dropped in to a paper shop which had many drawers of paper samples, envelopes etc which people often choose for special occasions. I loved these amazing paper bowls. They look like a piece of modern art but can be made into different shapes and used for wrapping gifts or just for decoration.

We had a quick meal in a huge department store - check out the feature centrepiece hanging in the atrium - quite an Indian feel.

Finally at 6.30 we went to the Kabuki Theatre. The show features 3 different performances, and we were advised not to go to all of them as the whole show can last up to 4 hours. We arrived for the second performance which was very stylised and only 15 minutes long, then after a 20 minute interval  the feature performance started - a four-act story about a geisha who manipulated and lied, and met an untimely death at the hands of a broken-hearted fabric seller. Sad. We hired screens that gave us subtitles so the dialogue was all translated simultaneously which made it very enjoyable.

Then back to the hotel on the subway - I almost think I could brave the subway system now.  Here's the Ginza and me!

Tomorrow I am being shown the sights by Hiroshi before it's time to get to the airport. My colleague Ria is coming back on the same flights so we will have a lot to chat about!

Looking forward to seeing everyone again very soon.