Page 14 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 78

and from Niigata after the Show and hotels in Nagaoka
and a final night in the Tokyo Ginza before we travelled
on to Taipei. This was serious stuff, and I made very
careful notes of all the stages of our journey, dates,
times and hotels we were staying at. After a couple of
errors made with our arrangements around the north of
Scotland earlier this year, I was not keen to make any
mistakes this time!
IT DIDN’T We duly left Sydney on Wednesday, 27th November,
taking a taxi to the airport at 5.30 am for a 9.00 am JAL
LOOK VERY flight to Hanada, Tokyo, connecting to a domestic flight
FAR ON IAN’S for Osaka. Unfortunately, no direct flights to Osaka
were available. We had no problems transferring to the
GOOGLE domestic flight, however – I worried needlessly about
the rather tight times to transfer – JAL is incredibly
MAPS, BUT efficient. We arrived in Osaka at 8.00 pm Wednesday,
IN REALITY, collected our luggage (yes! It came with us) and went
to the bus stop just outside the terminal to complete
IT WAS A our journey to Kyoto, very tired at this stage but
LONG HIKE happy the travelling had gone well so far. One of my
colleagues at work had told us about the bus service
and, true to his word, there was a bus available for us.
The last part of the journey to Kyoto took about thirty
minutes, and upon arrival at Kyoto station, we decided
to walk to our hotel. It didn’t look very far on Ian’s
Surrounded by stunning own John Zammit on his first Japan ZNA Koi Show and
Google Maps, but in reality, it was a long hike along a grounds and adorned
walkway under the station that appeared to go on with gold leaf, the Golden Koi tour. It was quite an emotional reunion for many of
forever! I used to think the tunnel under the Central Temple exceeded all our us. Generally, only assembling for Koi Shows it is usually
expectations. years between catching up. The first order of business
Station in Sydney was long, but this one was about
for the day was a visit to the coffee house next door –
three times the distance. We were exhausted when we
some of the party had not had breakfast – following
finally reached our hotel around 10.00 pm, and Ian was
which we hailed three taxis to take us to the Golden
also very hungry. All I wanted to do was unpack and fall
Temple grounds. Piak, Alan’s wife (an excellent tour
into bed (quite literally in the shoebox that was our
guide), said this was a must-see in Kyoto. I have seen
room), but Ian decided to go out and forage for
photographs, but the reality is breathtaking. The whole
something to eat – I left him to it!
temple is finished in gold leaf and stands on the edge of
The next morning, we felt more or less alive again after a beautiful lake in manicured grounds. An incredible
a good sleep. Following breakfast at the hotel, we met sight, but sadly, the scene lost some atmosphere the
our group for sightseeing. Quite a few more people day we visited due to the hordes of tourists and school
headed for the ZNA Show had joined Alan, Rene and groups thronging every pathway. You could hardly
ourselves, including Mike Frady, Luanne Porter and move, and it was difficult to keep track of all the
Mary Kathryn Andrews from the United States, Mike members of our group. I have never seen such crowds,
Harvey and Dean Britz from South Africa, Töen Feyen especially on a weekday. We didn’t stay very long, just
from Holland, Bernie Woollands from the UK and our long enough for a look around and some photographs.

14 15