Saturday 1^st April 2017

Before leaving Nagoya this morning we noticed on the TV that as part of the morning show there was a report on the percentage of cherry blossoms that had appeared. People are eager to see them in bloom as it is a tradition to have a hanami (picnic) under them.

Still drizzling and after early start easily found the Daiichi Museum which was holding a “Glass World Exhibition of Art Deco”. It is a very small museum but showing some fabulous French pieces by Galle, Daum and Lalique. We were lucky we noticed this exhibition on a flyer as it ends in a few days’ time.

Also exhibited were modern pieces by Dale Chihuly from Seattle, USA.

We then headed, or thought we did, for Kyoto but we found ourselves heading east when Kyoto is to the west. It seems we must have had the wrong co-ordinates in the GPS. We got onto the motorway and passed through some massive tunnels, 3 and 4 kms in length. No wonder tolls are so expensive.

Kyoto has many narrow, one way roads/lanes and we had difficulty finding our hotel. We are staying in a ryokan, newish but in the traditional style – futons on the floor, very low tables and chairs – hips are feeling it!

Lots of tourists here, the only ones we’ve seen since Tokyo, and expect that all the major tourist towns will be crowded now that the cherry trees are starting to blossom.