After spending the morning fighting past hordes of young Japanese schoolchildren at the Todai-Ji temple, we’ve left Nara and have traveled to 30km north to Kyoto. We’re here for the next four nights staying in the labyrinth like Hotel Granvia Kyoto, integrated directly into the city’s massive and architecturally stunning train station.

Kyoto station; you really have to see this place to really appreciate it. Architecturally, there’s not a single sign of uniformity or symmetry anywhere as far as I can see, and it’s so high the escalators seem to go on forever (the roof actually takes about 10 minutes to get to!). It’s so big, you’ll probably need a day just to see everything here, let alone venturing out into the city itself. Shopping malls, coffee shops, restaurants and a huge department stores line the walls; climb high enough and you’ll come across a walkway or viewing deck giving you a grand view of the city, including the spire-like Kyoto Tower.

It actually took us so long to look around that we gave up on the idea of going out into the city for dinner, and ended up in one of the Ramen restaurants on the top floor; we probably would’ve starved to death in the time it took find our way back to ground level again…