The upcoming posts will most probably be quite vague in terms of holiday recounts. It was only up until day 4 that I started to make note of the days events. With that in mind we embarked on the first day of our holiday. Having been on a slightly delayed flight we touched down at Narita Airport a little later than scheduled. The heat although not on par with South East Asian countries was bearable but uncomfortable.
9ish: It was there at Narita airport that we were confronted in what would be a stark reality check of the language barrier. The information lady was helpful, at least she looked helpful, if we could interpret what she was saying. The moment we asked "English?" she replied promptly. Unfortunately her reply was not through voice but by means of a hand gesture whereby her index finger and thumb came together to make a slight gap between both digits. What proceeded was quite simply a barrage of Japanese. Despite this we managed to discern that we needed to catch a train to Tokyo station and then the bullet train to Kyoto.
The bullet train was fast, but I somewhat disappointed. Faster! Mush! Yee-haa! Nonetheless the ride was comfortable. Plenty of leg room and most importantly the cabins were air-conditioned. The flight earlier this morning had clearly drained us. Exhausted, tired and in dire need of a shower we slouched in the Shinkansen that hurtled us towards Kyoto. Some 30 minutes into the trip we were greeted by a friendly looking service man who confirmed our seats and continued on his merry way. Shortly after another train employee cheerfully pushed a cart full of snacks and drinks down the train isles. Were all Japanese in Customer Service so polite and eager to please?
Armed with the advice "You have to try the bullet train Bento Box just once" and given our impoverished states we each ordered a Bento Box (This may sound like a simple task but we resorted to a series of hand gestures and picture pointing to get our order across). Not the tastiest food but given the pace we demolished the meals you may have been mistaken into thinking otherwise. Approximately 2 and bit hours later we were at Kyoto station. Stepping onto the platform we were overwhelmed by the size of the supplementary shopping centre built around the station. It was huge!We found our hotel APA Ekimae quite easily. It's situated very close to Kyoto Station. Unfortunately we were due for check in until 3 pm, thankfully we were able to leave our luggage in the foyer while we went to explore Kyoto Station. It was around this time I decided to try to knock off some of the shopping list items that I had been requested to bring home. First and foremost my sister's list. It read simply: Yube cream and Shu Uemura eyelash curler. Sweet, i'll just pick up these two items while we're browsing the Kyoto shopping district. What would proceed would possibly be my greatest endeavour to find a beauty product. The heartache alone warrants a dedicated blog.
My sister had kindly attached a photo of what the Yube cream packaging looked like. All I would do is approach a sales assistant, point at the photo and I'd be set. Search of Yube cream take 1. I left the store with sales assistants laughing and whispering. Although I couldn't understand what they were saying I'd imagine it to be something like the lines of "Check out that guy, he was after some mythical face cream and eye lash curlers!". My first day and I had already been laughed at, What's going on? Maybe this wouldn't be so simple...3:30 pm: We headed back to the hotel, I had successfully managed to find the eyelash curler but the blasted Yube cream was no where to be found. Checked into our hotel room. Can't remember our first impressions but I'm sure it was one of these catch phrases:
- "This place is tiny!"
- "Look, it has a bidet!"
- "A/C!"
- "TV!"
