We took the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto and we decided to lash out and stay at the hotel directly above the Kyoto train station. David was very excited to discover that this flashy hotel also had a heated toilet seat and a "bum washer" as he called it (bidet to us more classy robins) in the toilet (men are weird)!

We explored the city on foot and started off by visiting a few temples however we were soon washed out due to the heavy rain.  Even though we had umbrellas we were soon soaked to the bone and ended up hailing a cab.  Our plan was to get back to the hotel and change our drenched clothes and then head back out using the trains so we could avoid getting wet.  What followed was an hour of craziness with our taxi driver.

Unfortunately he didn't accept credit card and we had absolutely no cash on us, so we spent a whole pile of time driving around trying to find an ATM that would allow us to withdraw cash.  After every failed stop the taxi driver was getting more and more distressed and I think all 3 of us were near to tears at one stage.  We finally ended up with success at the ATM at the post office (right next door to our hotel) and the relief on the old man's face when we handed over this hard earned cash was priceless, it was an unforgettable experience.  To make ourselves feel better we treated ourselves to some wonderful Japanese food for a late lunch, including a big drink of saki to warm us up after getting cold and wet.

Because it was pouring with rain for most of our stay it was a good excuse to do lots of shopping rather than the temples, which we will do on our next visit. We found some amazing little shops including one that specialised in making traditional Japanese ink stamps with Japanese symbols on them, there were rows upon rows of these stamps in this dinky little Kyoto shop.

We finished off our day at a very cool underground jazz bar where we stayed and relaxed the night away and consumed more saki and got a little drunk!  Kyoto was a wonderful experience, even taking into account the wet weather and we can't wait to get back there and see more of it.