Kobe to Kyoto

The night was, as predicted, fairly sleepless, but only from my point of view. All the boys said they slept fine!! Anyway, it was only one night.
We met Kellie at 10am after doing some washing in the "coin laundry" in the hotel. The dryer was almost useless, so I packed bags of wet washing to dry in Kyoto. We walked around Kobe for a while. We went to a 100yen shop where everything in the world was there and all for 100Yen each. It was an experience. (100 Yen is about $1.20) Then we went to see a shrine and up a government building which had an observatory level to look over Kobe. Then we found a nice place to have lunch. You have to order it using a vending machine, get the ticket and then take it to the counter where they cook it for you. That seemed to work.
After lunch we said goodbye to Kellie and made our way back to the hotel, picked up our bags and headed for Kyoto. We are getting good at Japanese trains so we were not phased by the line changes we had to make (3 or 4 in all to get from one hotel to the next). We checked into our Kyoto Hotel where we are staying for 3 nights.
There I found another coin laundry and this time the dryers worked, so we have clean and dry washing. The room is set up with sofa beds which you unfold and then put futons down and doonas and pillows on top. Very multi functional.
Later on in the evening we went for a quick train trip and walk in Kyoto. We saw an amazing temple / shrine which was very dramatic at night time. Lanterns everywhere and bright red and orange gates and eves etc. It looked fantastic. These are not just tourist attractions. There are always Japanese at these shrines praying and following different rituals.
We then found a tiny tepanyaki place that cooked us dinner infront of us and served it in alfoil trays (hand folded) that were kept hot on the bbq plate. It was great. We also stopped for some yakatori sticks. Food here is fantastic.
Tired, but full of experiences, we came back to the hotel to make up our beds and have baths and go to bed. Heading to Nara tomorrow with a guide and with Kellie. Should be good.