Osaka/Kyoto simply wonderful!

Everyone I have talked to this evening was somewhere between delighted and euphoric with their experience in Osaka or Kyoto. This included those on Princess tours and those going independently. My day was independent. First we had to clear immigration and being independent we were scheduled to go through last. However the process was very efficient and we were able to go early. They scanned our eyes and took our fingerprints. We are now in the databases in Japan and can likely be tracked on the streets with the eye scanning technology. I bet they can reconstruct my whole day.

Our little group headed off the ship, exchanged money at the pier and struck out to find a taxi. What? No taxis? Not a problem. We went with plan B and took the subway to the train station. It was raining hard and everyone got a chance to test their wet weather gear on the way to the subway station. I was happy in my water proof shoes and jacket with a hood but had decided not to bring an umbrella which was a questionable choice later in the day as the rain continued to pour down.

Once we got to the train station we took the bullet train to Kyoto (pic. 1). The ride was about 17 min. Hardly enough time to get comfortable in the seats. As you can see in pic. 2 the lady behind me is wearing her dust mask. I brought mine on the cruise for Asia but didn't think to take it with me in Japan. I could tell the air quality was poor right away as it caused my lungs to burn slightly. I wish I had brought it but the heavy rain likely helped clean the air so it wasn't too bad. However, throughout the day we saw many people wearing them.