Granny's Got a Bike: Lift off and let down

So far on my travels I have had relatively few hassles... but Jetstar decided to wake me up and our flight out of Cairns was delayed - 6 hours so we were boarding at the time we should have been arriving in Kyoto. Knew it was going to get ugly! having said that, it was best that they fixed the plane first... but it ended up meaning arriving at Kansai at 1am and by then there were no buses... so after spending 9 hours hanging around Cairns, the flight of 6 hours, then another 4 hours at an empty Kansai airport, meant not only Cranky Chris, but a very tired Chris! am not good at sleeping on planes even tho I had 3 seats to myself... eventually buses started running again and I made it Kyoto eventually arriving at Centurian Cabins and Spa... of course, they charged me for the night I didn't turn up... but at least they let me unload everything into my Superior Cabin and after a hot shower and a soak in the piping hot spa a bit of vigour returned to this tired old body!

I am just down the road from the Nishiki Markets, so I went for a stroll through a rather crowded covered mall with an amazing array of food I wouldn't have a clue was... tho heaps of seafood -baby octopus to lumps of tuna I guess.. vegetables of all shapes and sizes but I was hungry and nothing looked vegetarian... but then I saw sesame seed encrushed camembert cheese - and yep, not bad for breakfast! amongst all the noise and shouting I heard - Tenpura - so I checked out what they had and yes they could do a meal without the bacon! there were zucchini, mushroom, lotus root, Japanese mint, eggplant and more - plus an array of other vegetables - as well as miso soup (that didn't taste like fish) and a bowl of rice... I couldn't get thru it all... burp!!

the rest of the day, I spent trying to track down a cheap phone with a Japanese Sim card, in case I needed to make phone calls... but unless I want to sign a 6 month contract, its not possible. even caught a bus to train station, to the largest electronic store - but no no no... maybe at Kansai airport... yes, they were all closed at 2am..... sigh... just have to hope I don't need to make an actual call... came back to my superior cabin had 30 mins kip, then went downstairs and resurrected Hennie... All the pieces were still they and they fitted together!!

Yay - so a stroll back to the Daimaru market for some tea and I bought a beer when I got here - and boy am I ready for some sleep!

just a couple of photos today... hopefully tomorrow I can become a tourist again!