Going Japanese, Kyoto stuff - part four

Finished our trip to Japan with a couple of days in Kyoto, which is the old capital and a two and a half hour bullet train ride from Tokyo.



Plans were somewhat disrupted by Amanda coming down with a severe bout of cystitis and an unscheduled stop at a local Kyoto hospital for strong antibiotics and a glucose top up - we were really lucky that the hotel manager, Tomoko, had worked in the UK and was fantastic at translating the medical pronouncements.




So when we finally got to the hotel - http://www.hoshinoya.com/en/concept/index.html - it was pitch black - but we were greeted with this view from our window in the morning



We were in a modern but traditional room, complete with paper walls and black chestnut sanded floors,



with a ramshackled but wonderful Buddhist temple up the hill behind us

You were encouraged to ring their bell

They had every convenience at the temple

We left the hotel by boat down the river Katsura Gawa

and received the traditional farewell from the staff .