This morning we packed our few belongings into our rucksacks and headed for Yoyogi Station for the first leg of our 5 hour journey to Hiroshima.
As is often the case we had to wait for the trains crossing the junction
before calling into the 7-11 to buy our lunch for the train.
Our first train was to Shinagawa Station, inside it looked like a shopping mall, we could easily have bought lunch here!
Managed to find the correct platform with plenty of time to spare, so we amused ourselves whilst waiting for our train by taking a few photos and videos
You have about a minute to board and then the doors close, so no hanging about. Everyone stands in designated areas marked out in blue. It's all very precise, except that our train was 5 minutes late!
We managed to catch a glimpse of Mount Fuji on the way. Most of the journey was across flat land, with mountains in the background interspersed with large cities, villages and lots of long tunnels.
The train reached speeds of up to 199 miles an hour so it was quite tricky taking any photos and made your ears pop! The toilets, as you would expect were very clean.
We ate our very tasty picnic, including salt and seaweed flavour crisps, followed by a nap, or two, in my case!
Hiroshima stations exit signs were easy to follow until you got to the point where they were building a new track, but we successfully navigated our way out. We decided to stretch our legs and walk to our hotel. Our suitcases had arrived and were in our room, which was great. However the receptionist advised that it would take two days, possibly one, for our suitcases to get to Kyoto. We're going to chance our luck and hope for one day, but carry a few spare clothes!
After a rest we wandered to Hiroshima Castle, along the main street we spotted a wedding dress shop that looks more familiar than the Shinto style dresses.
There's also a tram service, which we might make use of tomorrow.
Hiroshima Castle was originally built in the 1500s, but the atomic bomb destroyed the original.
They faithfully rebuilt the main keep in the 1950s as a sign of the regeneration of Hiroshima.
It's now a museum with a viewing gallery at the top, from which we had some excellent vista
Some photos of the moat and grounds, supposedly home to numerous cherry trees, but no blossom yet.
As the sun was setting we headed for some dinner at a nearby restaurant, a sweet and sour pork that was delicious, not a bit like the U.K version and a spicy chicken with cashews, which tasted very much of earl grey tea, so guessing that they used bergamot. Tasty but quite strong and made your tongue tingle!
We strolled back to the hotel in the cool evening air.
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