The guidebook tells you that Kyoto doesn't make a great first impression - true. You land in the middle of an area that looks not entirely unlike - er, well, any suburb of Dublin you wouldn't go to unless you fell asleep on the Nitelink. Walking around the city you see ancient treasures surrounded, almost under in fact, petrol stations and 7Eleven stores.
Wrecked from our travels - that's 3 hours on the bullet train, we decided to treat ourselves to a taste of home. Tadg's is a pub in the middle of the Gion district of Kyoto - a district of a less than classy nature - nonetheless, we enjoyed the best of Irish, served by our oriental hosts with the hospitality to which we've become so accustomed.
Our hotel in Kyoto, by the way, is very nice indeed. Slán.
