Day 344: Goodbye New Zealand — 20-hour travel day: Nelson to Auckland to Osaka to Kyoto — Kon’nichiwa Japan!

Getaway day. But not raining — actually gorgeous. We were up and out by 5:30 — Peter got up to send us off. We drove into Nelson as the sun came up. The sheep and cows were awake too. This one cheeky sheep at Himmelsfeld Vineyard wanted some berries for breakfast. 

That began our monster 20-hour travel day: 50 min drive to Nelson, 90 min flight to Auckland, 3 hour layover spent shopping and hanging in the airport lounge, 11 hour flight to Osaka, 2 hour drive to Kyoto. We arrived at The Villa Sanjo Muromachi Kyoto boutique hotel at 9:30pm Kyoto-time, which is 1:30 am in NZ. 

The flight was long and tedious but not miserable. The kids are essentially tranquillized by their iPads. Willa found the Harry Potter movies on the in-flight TVs and watched the first two. They didn’t watch shows the entire time — they both napped and we did a little school work too. We all dozed a bit in the ride from Osaka to Kyoto and were all pretty beat by the time we got to the hotel. All that said, since we’re traveling with kids and sitting in economy, I’d rather do the long haul daytime flight than the overnight. 

The Villa Sanjo Muromachi is a small boutique hotel on a little side street in the center of Kyoto. The room setup is unique. We have one not-so-big room with four beds and a little table with stools in the middle. There is a closet, a tiny sink area and toilet on the floor with the beds and then a bathroom and tiny “garden” down a little spiral staircase. I actually didn’t go downstairs until the next morning and my opinion of the room and hotel went up two grades once I did. The downstairs bathroom is huge, with a massive shower, jacuzzi and nice robes, products, etc. 

It feels weird to be *back* in an Asia… but in a super developed country… in cold weather. Aren’t we supposed to be sweating? And not drinking the tap water?

Bottom line: we are super excited. I’ve actually been to Kyoto… 13 years ago and only for a short visit. To be honest, I don’t remember much. Driving into a new city with a few weeks to explore never gets old. 

And neither does the feeling of going to bed on a Sunday night, knowing that you have breakfast arriving at 8:30 but other than that, you are staring down a Monday with absolutely no commitments of any kind.