Kyoto is located west two hours from Tokyo. It is the former imperial city before Edo (Tokyo) became the seat of the emperor. On three sides there are hills and the city has a grid layout. It has 1.4 million inhabitants and is famous for its Zen gardens, temples, Noh theatre and delightful cuisine.
I tried to withdraw money from an ATM. Well, I do know now about 15 ATM locations of banks in town those have VISA stickers on them. They all very kindly (with graphical animation and voice) refused my card. Finally I asked in a shopping mall and they pointed me to the Central Post Office, There my Maestro card worked!
Due to budget reasons I am trying to stay at local Ryokan (Japanese for guesthouse). Well, there are two problems with that: The first one is that if Japanese translate directions into English the result is questionable up to confusing. Because the Kyoto grid system is organized into neighbourhood, streets names are hard to find and mostly written in Japanese. The second problem is the fact that traditional guesthouses are only labelled in Japanese and do not look like hotels. So they are hard to spot (I literally walked by one without knowing it). The good news is that everyone I asked tried their most to help me, including asking around and calling the guesthouse. Once I asked a taxi driver but he did not know either. So he called the guesthouse, brought me there (it was very close) and would not take any money for it! Alex, this would be taxi-driver-heaven for you here!
You really impessed me with the japanese taxi driver story - it's too good to be true - I have to try and find out myself
Greetings from Boracay (Philippines)
Alex
Posted by: Alex Drews | November 05, 2005 at 12:12 PM