Things we learned today

1. The Kintetsu train line's signage isn't as clear as Keihan's or Hankyu's.
2. When almost everyone gets off a crowded train, it's probably a good idea to follow them, especially if you're not sure you're on the correct train in the first place. If they all go across to the other track, it's probably because an express train is coming that's going to go faster than the local train you mistakenly got on.
3. Kintetsu charges more for their "Tokkyu" trains (limited express), but it's worth it.
4. There are lots of school field trips to major tourist sites during the week after Golden Week.
5. You can picnic anywhere in the very large park in Nara (containing the important Kasuga Taisha shrine), but you have to watch out for deer droppings.
6. If your bus doesn't come to the main bus bay at Kyoto Station within a few minutes, it's because something has made it terribly late and by the time it comes a gazillion people will be in line to crowd on. You should have just taken the subway, which you knew was a good idea but you wanted to try something different.
7. Even when taking both naps today in the carrier (one with S and one with me), having his lunch outside with nosy deer eyeing his mashed spinach, having to eat boring rice crackers for supper because we stayed out too late, and riding the train and then an overcrowded and slow bus home past his bedtime, little J is a good sport and the sweetest baby around. Happy Mother's Day to me!

And Happy Mother's Day to our moms and grandma/great grandma (and all the other moms in our lives).