Kyoto, stop 13

Very brief, because it is half past five in the morning and we are travelling today to Tokyo, stop 14, in under two hours.

I really love Japan, which is cool in so many ways. While today was a blazing, steamy exception, it's been rainy for most of our five days here, and I ended up spending most of my time in the very nice hotel (the Takaragaike Prince Hotel) working on confirming the concerts we will sing at the Esplanade Recital Studio in Singapore on 8 Aug (tickets will be available next Wednesday on www.sistic.com.sg). I did spend a couple of days sightseeing though - I especially enjoyed Nijo Castle and the Shimogamo shrine (when I went they were holding a fascinating local festival which involves wading through a icy natural spring with a lit candle).

This stop felt like a real vacation for many of us, filled with late mornings, sluggish days and low key nights. Except for the fun night about half of us just had which a bunch of American/Japanese-American college students doing study abroad here in Kyoto (yay clubbing!).

And that's it for this blog.