Back to Kyoto

This morning we got the bus to the station again, and like yesterday evening we got on the bus through the middle doors, didn't take a ticket, and just had to pay when leaving.

We got the train to Odawara, but when we came to put our bags in the lockers that we had seen yesterday, all the lockers were in use. After looking round for a bit we found some empty lockers, and managed to stuff my bag, my tripod bag (without the tripod), Moccle's coat, and a bag of books in there. Then we bought some food for breakfast.

We walked to Odawara castle, which is in a park, and ate our breakfast there at about 12pm. After that we bought some tickets to look round the castle building, which was a bit disappointing really - just like a museum inside, and you couldn't get very good photos from the top as there was all wire fencing around the outside.

After that we saw a shrine and a couple of the gates for Odawara Castle, which didn't look that good as they seem to be renovating/re-building them at the moment (the gates that is, not the shrine). We went to a shop and bought some food, then bought some cheeseburgers from McDonalds, then went to Odawara station. At the station we got our stuff out of the locker, I packed my tripod back in its bag, and then we went to wait for the train to Kyoto.

We ate some lunch waiting for the train, and then some lunch on the train. When we were waiting for the train, we saw lots of photographers on the other platforms taking photos of the Shinkansens that didn't stop at Odawara. The train took a long time, but eventually got to Kyoto about 5.30pm. We found the hotel using the gps, but when we got there the door was locked. While Moccle was trying to remember how to say 'I have a reservation' so we could say it into the intercom thing, a woman opened the door and let us in.

She showed us around, there was a downstairs shower where you have to press a button before you use it to get hot water, and a kitchen downstairs where you can make drinks. Upstairs there was a bathroom with a toilet and shower. Our room was upstairs, and was quite small. There was only one matress thing between the two of us, but two duvet things. I had wondered about this, as when we booked it on expedia, it said the bed was a double. But the description said it slept up to three people, so Moccle had said it must be three separate futons since you wouldn't have three people sharing the same bed. But apparently it is all one bed.

I wrote up this blog post and copied and sorted todays photos, then we went out to try and get some food. We walked around for ages, mainly around the train station, but couldn't find anywhere that was a decent price. Also, most of the places we wouldn't know what or how to order. At the station we went up loads of escalators, and went up near the top of the station where you can get quite a good view (though only in one direction).

As well as finding some food, I also wanted to see if there was anywhere we could get some more yen as most places in Japan don't seem to accept normal credit cards, and we've nearly run out of the £200 worth of yen we brought with us already. We didn't see any currency exchange places (and we don't actually have any currency to exchange), but did see a shop that said it had an ATM, so I thought maybe Moccle could use his debit card there to withdraw some Yen. He didn't have his debit card with him though, so we couldn't check. It's strange how most places in Japan require cash, but we haven't seen any ATMs yet.

Eventually we decided to go back towards a McDonalds we had seen when we started our expedition, but before we got there, Moccle spotted a restaurant that looked quite cheap, and it was, so we ate our food there. The staff even spoke some English. It was 380yen each for a bowl of Yakatori chicken with rice, but the drink was this tea stuff that tastes of seasame seeds, so we also ordered a bottle of beer, which was 400 Yen for a reasonable sized bottle.

Food
Breakfast: Cheese Baguel; ½ bottle Pocari sweat.
Lunch: McDonald's Cheeseburger; Pain Delicieux (Bread roll thing with butter cream stuff inside it); Coffee bread thing; ⅓ bottle of Pocari Sweat.
Dinner: Yakitori chicken; rice; shredded seaweed stuff. Beer.