Well tonight, as planned, we took the shinkansen from Kobe to Kyoto, then the subway round to Gion. Wish we’d come here when we were in Kyoto as I had the wrong camera with me so only got a couple of photos (might trim out some Himeji pictures so I can post them). Day time tbhis place would have been good, but in the evening, in the central part jsut of Shinbashi, it is superb. Really atmospheric. We both got to see a maiko (trainee geisha) this time, but she was too far ahead to ask for a picture. Also along side the stream that runs through the quarters, we saw a Geiko (full geisha) entertaining a couple of business men, but it would have been rude to take a picture at that point.

We found the restaurant we wanted. All it serves is gyoza, the Japanese take on fried Chinese dumplings (Shanghai dumplings ?). 50 each, plus two bears each and the total bill still only came to about £35.

Back to Tokyo tomorrow and using a cyber cafe to hit the ‘Net.