Day 20, Tuesday, Nov 3: Kyoto to SFO

Day 20, Tuesday, Nov 3: Kyoto to SFO

Weather: Cool, breezy, occasionally overcast

Our art tour guide

THB is feeling punk today and skips the fitness center. DB joins THB in having the “pancakes” and thinks we’re really having crumpets.

At 8:30am we take the art tour of the hotel, led by a curator, and joined by one other woman (who appears to be more bilingual than the curator).

Pics from around the hotel:

The inside trees are swapped out every 3 weeks

Close-up of bubble-boy piece, note that it is a lute underneath and you can see the strings (however faintly)

Wood gives "shrine" feel, and there is no usage of glue or nails

35 year old bonsai tree

DB guessed the media: white-out!

fabric on the wall

FUJIKASA SATOKO

Guide taking pic of tour members (we couldn't figure out why)

Back to the room and organizing suitcases, looks like it will all fit. We have lots of time, so stroll east and visit a modern art museum (more stuff from the early 1900s than THB expects, this isn't "contemporary").

Utility box with ornament

A huge torii

THB taking a pic of the elevator taking a pic of THB

It's National Culture Day and one shrine had lots of visitors

Not this one!

Nor this one

Then shopping near the hotel at Art & Science, DB gets a very handsome jacket. LB the sister of THB made this spot a reco, and since the place was next door to the RC, it got attention paid:

THB takes a pic of the changing room

That's DB getting ready to put on a top while protecting the clothes from make-up

Lunch of hot and cold soba nearby, $22.

Dip a portion of soba in various bowls (egg, slurpy yam, soy sauce) 

THB orders hot soba with herring

DB gets a side of tempura with her cold soba

 Soba made step-by-step in pics:

Our AMEX card was compromised yesterday and AMEX cancelled the current card and is sending a new one to E-ville, so several of the charges at the end went on VISA. However, AMEX did cover the Ritz charge which is good thing since we used AMEX concierge service to make the booking. It was a biggee: amount supplied upon request. And, it was terrific (i.e., unlike the Waldorf Astoria). Our only complaints: a strong scent in the lobby area and so many staff standing around wishing you a good morning, good evening, or welcome back that at some point you wish you could take the freight elevator to get in and out of the hotel without being seen.

With three bags and several carry-ons we decide to cab to the airport, which is a long way away from Kyoto, over an hour; $140. THB slept most of the way.

We return the phone (no outbound calls and only missed inbound calls) and the wifi router at the airport. THB clearly read the charges for the router wrong, it turned out to be about $10 a day to bring you blog posts and to keep up on the baseball scores. Another nicety since otherwise THB would’ve been in bizarre lobbies for most of the trip to get internet access.

The phone/wifi rental company

DB manages to spend our remaining yen to within the last dollar.

And, the flight goes on time,  lands early, and it is clear in the Bay Area,  enough we can see famous landmarks:

Famous landmark number 1

Famous landmark number one A (THB and DB's loft just above the interchange, across the train tracks from Ikea)