Day One: SFO to Kyoto

We have made it to the Youth Hostel here in Kyoto without a hitch.  We had a very smooth flight all the way with only a couple of bumpy spots.  All the kids have been great; their behavior has been quite good (except for the incessant whistler on the plane!)  Immigration and Customs were a piece of cake, although we did have to wait in line for 45 minutes or so because we had been seated near the very back of the plane.

Mr. Yachi, one of the chaperones who visited Monterey, met us at the airport and together we got all of our luggage shipped off to Nanao and ourselves on the train to Kyoto.  It was still daylight for most of the way and all the kids were impressed by what they could see: the tightly-packed houses interspersed with plots of rice, cabbages, onions, and all kinds of other crops, the small size of all the cars, Tonka Truck-sized bulldozers, and so on.  They were also impressed by the tile roofs of all the houses.  It was fun to see their eyes shining with wonder, "Whoa...this is like so totally amazing!"

Kyoto Station itself is a marvel of architecture and as we came out of the wicket, I saw jaws drop as they looked up at the Kyoto Tower all lit up against the night sky.  "Totally awesome!!"

We wound our way up to the 10F of the connecting department store to a restaurant arcade devoted entirely to ramen noodles.  Even the ones who said they weren't hungry happily slurped up a bowl.  Once fed, we found our bus that would take us uptown to the youth hostel. Nearly everyone promply fell asleep!

The youth hostel we're in is truly fabulous and everyone is eager to see it in the morning light, at the moment though, everyone is very soundly asleep.  All is well and tomorrow promises to be a beautiful day.