Another castle conquered

Another bad night sleep-wise. Tom was awake before 10.00pm and would not go back down. He screamed as if in agony for a while, so we put him between us on the futons. He stopped screaming, but never really got back to sleep all night, just tossed and turned for hours on end. Jet lag? Hard to say. In any case, he was looking very bright and cheerful at 7:30, and crawled all over the flat laughing and grinning.

We decided to venture further afield today, so Tom had his morning nap on the move, firstly on a packed bus, then on a very noisy platform at Kobe's bullet train station, and then on the bullet train itself, only waking when we got off at Kyoto. I don't know how he didn't wake up before then. We took another "shinkansen" and then a local train to get to Hikone, a famous old town with a nice castle. We bought supplies for a picnic at the local supermarket and lugged them up a steep hill to a grassy bit just below the castle keep. It was another amazingly warm day today; I still can't believe we sat outside and had a picnic and cold beer (see photo) in t-shirts in February. Tom also ate and behaved very well. He seems to like the local food, especially Japanese bread.

After lunch, we climbed right to the top of the keep for an excellent view over the town and nearby Lake Biwa, although it was rather incongruous to see snow-covered mountains close by on such a warm day. Nik carried Tom up some of the steepest stairs I've ever seen (more like ladders) but somehow managed to avoid plunging to a messy death.

We strolled back into town, pausing to spend nearly 1000 yen at a very well-stocked 100 yen store, and then headed back to Kobe, hoping Tom would fall asleep on the bullet train again. He didn't, but did manage to charm an inordinate number of people again. I think he enjoys the attention. He ate a good dinner, cried a lot at bath time (over-tired) and then retired to his tent. We will see what the night brings.... Off to Tokyo tomorrow.