京都に行こう！ Lets go to Kyoto

Night time flight from Dubai to Kyoto. 3am departure and 5pm arrival. Flight time is about 9.5 hours. Emirates has stars on the roof of the plane that give some light but otherwise it is mostly dark. Cool feature anyhow.





After getting the passport stamped and the Visa validated and getting through customs, this is what Kansai airport looked like.














The convenience store was the first stop after getting past customs. The MK Taxi (shuttle) to Kyoto and our dorms would take about 2 hours. We need some snacks.

Duncan had saved lots of coins from his previous trips to Japan since he couldn't exchange them. He paid the taxi driver 4500 Yen (£35) in small value coins.

Dubai Airport

I'm not sure if I can explain Dubai's Airport in words, it won't do it justice. It's humongous and exactly what you would expect of a country that has almost unlimited funds to build whatever may please them. After landing at 6pm I'm still unsure if we were the only passengers there or if the complex just swallowed everyone else up. I'll let the pictures do the explaining and will respond to any questions in the comments section.

Security by the way, is kind of a joke. After having heard stories of people being thoroughly searched and stopped for no reason at all we were surprised and relieved, I suppose, to just be able to walk through with hardly anyone giving us a second look. Or it could just have been stories to scare people. hmmm

We have no idea on what's awaiting us past customs.

Shiny!

Rows and rows of pillars. Are we back in Rome during the Roman Empire?

Palm trees indoors FTW! Oh, and long conveyor belts since its so far to walk.