pandv_2000
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2008
I never finish trip reports because I can never remember what I did so I thought I would do a live report this time.
We are a family of 4, me, DH, DS1,11 and DS2, 4 and we are currently in Japan.
Travel day
I would like to be able to say that this was fairly uneventful but unfortunately it wasn't. We were supposed to land around 8:55am and have the whole day pretty much to spend in Kyoto but that isn't quite what happened. The first leg of the journey went well we left Manchester in the UK on time and the flight to Helsinki arrived ahead of schedule. The only downside being that they gave us a reindeer sandwich to eat on the plane which was disgusting. So far so good . We had a two hour layover in Helsinki and as we went to the gate to board the flight to Kansai airport we were told that the flight was delayed due to Typhoon Halong. The typhoon was currently battering the Kansai area and they wanted to make sure it was going to be safe to land.
We were given some vouchers for food but we'd just eaten so we decided to hang around for a bit. Our flight was now scheduled to take off at 10:30pm and land at around 2pm into Kansai. DS2 was really tired and we fought to keep him awake thinking at least if he slept on the plane we might get his body clock onto the right time zone quickly. We took off at 10:30 as planned and we all managed to get at least some sleep. DS2 managed about 7.5 hours of the 9.5 hour flight time. Our bags were ready when we went through to baggage claim and immigration and customs were straight forward.
We had previously purchased a 4 day JR Kansai Wide area pass and went to exchange the voucher for that. At this point we were told the limited express to Kyoto was not running due to the typhoon and would not be running for another 2 hours. We decided to take the local train which would take a lot longer but at least we would be moving in the right direction. We boarded a train and went one stop. We then sat in the next station for 45 minutes. There were quite a few announcements in Japanese but no one moved from the train so we kept assuming we would move soon. Eventually an Italian lady and DH went to speak to the driver to find out what was happening. They were told the trains were not running on that line. There was another line that seemed to have trains running so we decided to try our luck with that train. We were told we needed to get to another station then change to the Osaka loop and then to Kyoto. When we got on the other train the ticket inspector came to check tickets. Anyway long story short we ended up travelling to Kyoto with the Italian couple we met but it took over 3 hours. We eventually checked into our hotel, the Granvia, which I was so pleased was directly above the station, around 6:30 . We have a good view of the bullet trains from the room and it's really quiet especially considering we are on the lowest floor with rooms. We ate in the Cube above the station for our first night and it was really tasty and convenient.
As a side note thankfully the typhoon seems to have passed over and without causing too much damage in this area at least.
Up next - will we be able to get up in time for our tour with our private guide?
We are a family of 4, me, DH, DS1,11 and DS2, 4 and we are currently in Japan.
Travel day
I would like to be able to say that this was fairly uneventful but unfortunately it wasn't. We were supposed to land around 8:55am and have the whole day pretty much to spend in Kyoto but that isn't quite what happened. The first leg of the journey went well we left Manchester in the UK on time and the flight to Helsinki arrived ahead of schedule. The only downside being that they gave us a reindeer sandwich to eat on the plane which was disgusting. So far so good . We had a two hour layover in Helsinki and as we went to the gate to board the flight to Kansai airport we were told that the flight was delayed due to Typhoon Halong. The typhoon was currently battering the Kansai area and they wanted to make sure it was going to be safe to land.
We were given some vouchers for food but we'd just eaten so we decided to hang around for a bit. Our flight was now scheduled to take off at 10:30pm and land at around 2pm into Kansai. DS2 was really tired and we fought to keep him awake thinking at least if he slept on the plane we might get his body clock onto the right time zone quickly. We took off at 10:30 as planned and we all managed to get at least some sleep. DS2 managed about 7.5 hours of the 9.5 hour flight time. Our bags were ready when we went through to baggage claim and immigration and customs were straight forward.
We had previously purchased a 4 day JR Kansai Wide area pass and went to exchange the voucher for that. At this point we were told the limited express to Kyoto was not running due to the typhoon and would not be running for another 2 hours. We decided to take the local train which would take a lot longer but at least we would be moving in the right direction. We boarded a train and went one stop. We then sat in the next station for 45 minutes. There were quite a few announcements in Japanese but no one moved from the train so we kept assuming we would move soon. Eventually an Italian lady and DH went to speak to the driver to find out what was happening. They were told the trains were not running on that line. There was another line that seemed to have trains running so we decided to try our luck with that train. We were told we needed to get to another station then change to the Osaka loop and then to Kyoto. When we got on the other train the ticket inspector came to check tickets. Anyway long story short we ended up travelling to Kyoto with the Italian couple we met but it took over 3 hours. We eventually checked into our hotel, the Granvia, which I was so pleased was directly above the station, around 6:30 . We have a good view of the bullet trains from the room and it's really quiet especially considering we are on the lowest floor with rooms. We ate in the Cube above the station for our first night and it was really tasty and convenient.
As a side note thankfully the typhoon seems to have passed over and without causing too much damage in this area at least.
Up next - will we be able to get up in time for our tour with our private guide?