kYOTO

The fast train to Kyoto was pretty impressive. The speeds reach 300 km/hour. It actually made me nauseous to look out the window - as things went by so fast. That didn't bother me since the Japanese cities along the way were pretty boring. The houses are nondescript, squished together, no or tiny yards, nothing pretty at all...very utilitarian.

Kyoto has a few nice buildings, and you can see the mountains close by.

yesterday we spent several hours shopping. I LOVE THE CLOTHES HERE...I could have shopped all day. Anybody who is a rel girl's girl would love the fashion here. Very pretty, frilly, and pink. Petticoats, frilly panties, lacy and dainty everything. The department stores here are HUGE, and every where you go there are service people wearing white gloves, bowing at you and saying "welcome" (in Japanese of course).

Afterwards, we went to a Karaoke place, where three hours of singing and three beers set us back $76! We had a lot of fun. Then we took a cab home, but since the driver did not speak any english, we only managed to get ourselves into the vicinity of our hotel, and then had to walk around (at 1 am) looking for our street. No worries though; it is very safe here. police are everywhere. In fact, there re workers everywhere....everything seems to be overstaffed. We came to s small spot on the sidewalk where they were doing construction, and they had to detour us off the sidewalk for about 20 feet. There were 4 white gloved flagmen - one every 5 feet, to guide us (maybe to ensure we did not lose our way??? It was very weird!)

We do love being bowed t though. Kinda gives you the same feeling s in India when people wanted to take our pictures.

We are off now to see some ancient shrines. I will update more later aand try to post some pics.