Arrival in Kyoto and the day of the Earthquake

I was quite sad to leave Takayama, I had grown to tolerate the green tatami mats and anyone who has read my previous posts will understand how much I love the river and the town surrounding it. But I had to go to Kyoto. Continuing my journey on the Wide-View train to Nagoya I was once again amazed by the stunning scenery.

 
--- My some-what bedraggled reflection inside a tunnel---

Somewhere between Nagoya and Kyoto, while I was on the shinkansen, or perhaps while I was taking a photo of these cakes in Kyoto Station:

















Japan was rocked by the huge earthquake I'm sure you have all heard about.
Kyoto is a huge distance away from the epicenter and I didn't feel a thing. In fact I didn't even know it had happened until after I had checked into my hostel (K's House Kyoto, which is AWESOME by the way) and realised that I had missed calls and lots of text messages from worried friends and relatives back in Australia.
So that was the end of my first day in Kyoto. The rest of my night was spent sending emails, text messages and talking on Skype, while watching BBC news as the disaster began to unfold.
While I was not effected directly it is a terrible thing to have happened.
If you are interested in donating money to the relief effort the Japanese Red Cross Society is a good organisation: http://www.jrc.or.jp/english/relief/l4/Vcms4_00002070.html
Otherwise with a little bit of research I'm sure you can find something in your own country or area.