Today is a travel day. We will be doing 925 kilometres from Tokyo to Hiroshima but rather than fly, we will experience what low level flying is all about on the Bullet Trains or Shinkansen as they call them.
Our first bullet train was at 12:03 so there was a bit of time in the morning to pack and clean up the apartment. It was then time to haul our bags into Tokyo. We took the local train from Minoridai to Yabashira. There was a little delay at the ticket machine while Jenny mucked around with coins or whatever, so the group was split with Bradley getting on the train that was at the platform and the rest of us on the next one. It was then onto the Musashino Line to Nishi-Funabashi, staying on the same train on the Keiyo Line to Tokyo, however we are not sure what train we were getting on as the electronic board seemed to be 1/2 an hour behind. We managed seats all the way into Tokyo and then it was the wander through the Station to the Shinkansen terminal.
We were a little unsure how the system worked but we found where our car was (or so we thought). Looking at the train parked up, we determined our seats and where the luggage would be behind the rear row of seats, then the train moved off. That wasn’t our train. Our train moved into place and the cleaners went to work for 10 minutes. The cleaners then moved all the seats so that they were facing the wrong direction to what we thought. It was then off to the other door. The doors were open and we moved onto Hikari 471 bound for Shin-Kobe. Our baggage took all the room behind the rear seats and our seats were in the same row from window to window. The configuration was 3 and 2 seats.
Our journey was a little over 3 hours topping out at 280kph. The train was 16 cars which must slow it down a bit. At Shin-Kobe we changed trains which involved getting off, staying on the same platform and waiting for the next train to arrive. We went from the 16 car Hikari to the 8 car Sakura 561. This trip took a little over an hour and topped out at 298kph. Not having those extra 8 cars must make a difference as they were both the same model train – the N700.
The Hiroshima Station was very modern and after a short walk, we were outside and decided that 3.3km with the bags was not on so it was onto a “24” Bus (Y180) through town to Peace Park. Our apartment through Air BnB was only 100 metres from Peace Park. It was a 2 bedroom with a kitchen / eating area with separate toilet and bathroom. There was even a balcony with views to the A-Bomb Dome. A Lawsons Supermarket on the corner and a restaurant and bakery at the entrance. All very convenient. We ended up grabbing pre-cooked meals from the supermarket and called it a night.
