Day 18 (Tuesday 13th October 2026) Sumo wrestling

After several days of treating Kyoto like an Olympic endurance event, today was officially designated as our “semi-rest day”. Given we'd been averaging somewhere between 15,000 and 18,000 steps a day, our legs were preparing a strongly worded complaint to management. So the plan was simple: no rigid schedule, a bit of wandering, and an evening of sumo and geisha entertainment.

Train station roof

2nd floor view at train station 

For once, we enjoyed a sleep-in and didn't emerge until the decidedly civilised hour of 10:30am. Refreshed and only slightly guilty about wasting precious sightseeing time, we set off on a reconnaissance mission to Kyoto Station. Calling it a train station feels a bit like calling Uluru a rock. It's a vast, bewildering masterpiece of engineering that appears to have been designed by someone who thought, "What if we combined an train station , shopping centre, observation deck and small city into one building?"

Roof top garden 

Roof top warnings 

Naturally, we got distracted exploring the station complex and eventually found ourselves more than ten floors up in the rooftop garden. The sheer scale of the place is staggering. Below us sat floor after floor of shopping, each level seemingly about the size of Grand Central in Toowoomba. If someone told me there was a hidden suburb inside Kyoto Station, I wouldn’t probably believe them.

Train station 

Having successfully confirmed that tomorrow's train departure should be achievable without requiring a search-and-rescue team, we headed to Yodobashi Kyoto for lunch.

This is where our polished international traveller image quickly fell apart.

Despite our best efforts, we must have looked completely bewildered while tackling our meal. A kind local gentleman wandered over to offer assistance, and the restaurant staff promptly arrived bearing spoons. Clearly, our chopstick technique had raised concerns. While slightly embarrassed, we accepted their concern with good humour and stubbornly continued excavating rice with chopsticks. To our credit, the spoons remained untouched throughout the meal. We may have looked incompetent, but we were determined incompetent.

After lunch, Yodobashi revealed another danger zone: an enormous section devoted to plastic models, hobby kits and tools. For anyone unfamiliar, this is essentially my (Cos) equivalent of Disney World. Cos was in absolute heaven, wandering amongst shelves of kits and shiny modelling equipment. Unfortunately, reality intervened. Our suitcases are already operating near maximum capacity, and purchasing more tools would likely have required leaving some clothing behind. The tools stayed. My (Cos) wallet survived another to live another day.

Shopping at “The Don’s”

Our final shopping mission was a visit to the local Don Quijote for those all-important last-minute gifts and souvenirs. There is something about Don Quijote that transforms sensible adults into slightly frantic treasure hunters. One minute you're buying souvenirs, the next you're wondering if your friends back home really need Japanese novelty snacks and cartoon-themed household items.

With shopping duties finally completed, we returned to the hotel shortly before 5:00pm. After a quick shower and change of clothes, we headed out again for the evening's entertainment: a sumo and geisha performance dinner show.

The three-hour experience included all-you-can-eat food and all-you-can-drink beverages, which is always a promising start. The show itself was excellent. We were treated to demonstrations of sumo techniques and traditions, along with opportunities for audience participation. Brave volunteers from the crowd were invited to challenge the wrestlers, creating a series of encounters that can best be described as "educational for spectators and brief for participants."

The audience was encouraged to choose sides and cheer for one of the two wrestlers. Naturally, we selected the correct wrestler, who went on to claim victory. Our expert sporting analysis remains available for consultation.

Dinner (Sumo food)

The geisha performance added a wonderful cultural touch to the evening and rounded out a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

We finally arrived back at the hotel just before 10:00pm, where the glamorous reality of travel reasserted itself. The next hour and a half was spent packing, repacking, weighing bags, rearranging souvenirs and trying to convince our luggage to twist the laws of physics. (Anyone got spare Tardis?)

As we zipped up the final suitcase, one mystery remained unresolved: still no word from Qantas regarding an upgrade. Our hopes remain alive, although perhaps not quite as optimistic as they were before the Don Quijote souvenirs found their way into our bags. Tomorrow, it's homeward bound.