Konichiwah Gozimasu Japan (Hello Japan)

Our hotel in Kyoto was really nice (Vista Premier Kyoto), though arriving at midnight we just collapsed in our bed without really taking any of it in. We even skipped the included breakfast the following morning - something unheard of for me, so we must have been tired - and slept in until 10. We were glad that our first organised trip (we only had two pre-planned Audley trips booked - it's not usually our thing) was for the afternoon rather than the morning.

We spent the remainder of the morning and the early afternoon exploring our local area and getting our bearings. The hotel room was nice - a bit basic but much classier than we are used to on our holidays! Spotless and tidy, with a toilet that was our first experience of Japanese complexity - heated seat, shower and bidet (not sure of the difference) and a remote control. I was impressed, Emma less so.

Kyoto seemed pretty quiet for a large city (1.6M people, apparently), but then it was late morning on a Monday. Our hotel was in the middle of the main shopping district, so lots of shops to look round, lined along covered walkways. Interesting shops too, not multinationals. Finding lunch was the first challenge. We knew finding vegetarian food would be tough, mainly in finding out what was vegetarian, or even possibly vegetarian, given the language and alphabet differences, and the fact that vegetarianism is still an alien concept in Japan. And so it was, though a lot of restaurants in Kyoto did have English translations of their menus, as well as the ubiquitous plastic models of their food (though those models rarely helped decipher if it was vegetarian!). Despite our usual enthusiasm for trying out local food (OK, my usual enthusiasm for trying local food!) we decided in this case to be happy with any food we could find that was veggie. So a pasta lunch, that was very nice and reasonably priced at around £12 for the two of us, it had to be.

Our first impressions of Japan, and Kyoto in particular. Very clean. Very few bins anywhere, but no rubbish either. Even the lorries transporting rubble to and from the building sites were very clean and polished. In fact, even the building sites themselves were clean! And each small lorry had 6 people directing it out of the building site onto the road.

Everyone wears a uniform. There is probably a specific uniform for people who make uniforms. I usually feel scruffy in a hippy commune, but here I felt much more so. But the nice thing is that everyone is so polite, that it doesn't seem to matter. The politeness is lovely, and while I like the politeness of serving staff in places like America,there it seems forced (but is still nice), here it seems natural. The taxi drivers wear white gloves, the shop staff greet you when you enter, but then do not hassle you at all. It is a pleasure walking down the street - people smile and are pleasant, but there is no pressure to buy, to come into their shop, or read their menu. I love Thailand, but Japan is a lot less invasive of your personal space. The constant bowing is really nice too, very respectful. In Kyoto at least, we seem to fit in without any interest from the local at all. Kyoto is a very cosmopolitan place, with many tourists (and apparently international students too), so we don't stand out, but then Bangkok is also full of foreigners and yet in Bangkok we (along with all other foreigners) did get a lot of attention from locals - especially vendors and children. Here, we are ignored. It's nice.