I’m very happy to report that I am typing this post from a chair at a desk in my hotel room. It’s the first desk of my trip. Typing in bed is less efficient, particularly with the world’s worst bed pillows. I had to leave my cat’s head-shaped pillow from the 100 yen store in Kyoto, but I have a new one already. There’s a Watts 100 yen store in every town. The pillows here are so, so hard. I don’t even know what they are made of. Corn husks? I promise you that I am not kidding. They are terrible!
And I’m back in a WHG Hotel Group hotel. It’s absolutely lovely. The scrumptious bath/shower is exactly like in Tokyo. My room is better and bigger. There is no Godzilla head here.
The hotel is right behind a huge covered mall/shopping street like Kyoto. And there was a fun performance stage behind the hotel and there was a band playing. I loved them! If I ever get around to uploading my videos to this blog, you can see the band.
I walked through the shopping area – it’s at least 1/4 mile long – and emerged at the river and the A-Bomb Dome and the Peace Park. It was a powerful place and I was moved by the whole story and setting. Hiroshima is by far my favorite city so far in Japan. It seems like just the right size and bustle.
But first, let me tell you about the journey here.
So I had a reserved seat on the Sakura train from Shin-Osaka to Hiroshima at 11:30. I really needed to go into Bic Camera to see if they could get the 4G working on my phone. But they didn’t open till 10 and that seemed like a bit of a risk that I might miss my 11:30.
So at about 8:30, pastry in hand, I wandered up to the platform and hopped on a Shinkansen train to Shin-Osaka. Shin means new. The Shinkansen has its own platforms and special tracks so I figure some towns just can’t fit them into the existing stations and they build a “Shin” or new terminal to accommodate the Nozomi high-speed trains.
In exactly 12 minutes (30 miles), I was at Shin-Osaka and got off the train. Then I saw it went to Hiroshima and decided to get back on and just find an empty seat. All was well and I was enjoying the lovely scenery. I saw the ocean for the first time since I was here. Then a mere one stop from Hiroshima, the conductor asked to see my ticket. He said JR Pass didn’t let me ride those Nozomi super express trains. Ugh. I had to get off. I was in a small city that I hadn’t even heard of.
But there was a Sakura Shinkansen coming so I intended to get on that. But it was an 8-car train and I was in the wrong place and the train just didn’t pull up as far as I was standing at on the platform. I started running back, but it pulled away without me. So the next train was another Nozomi train and I got on that 10 minutes later. My plan was to hide in the bathroom if the conductor came along, and anyhow what could he do but ask me to get off at Hiroshima, which I was what I was doing anyhow. Despite all that, my journey was about two hours, and I arrived before I was scheduled to leave Kyoto.
When I arrived, I ate some good ramen at the train station, then I found the Bic Camera store next to the Hiroshima station. They eventually fixed the settings for my phone and I happily have 4G on my phone. It’s what I’m paying for so I should have it. It lets me see the Gram and e-mail and stuff when I’m away from wifi.
I took a taxi to my hotel, which is extraordinary both in quality and location, but my room wasn’t ready. So, I took the walk I described above and returned to my hotel to check into my room and regroup.
I tried the okonomiyaki pancake specialty for dinner. Umm… I hope I don’t make someone mad, but I didn’t love it. I probably should have tried it with the oysters, which are popular here. I’ll try it again somewhere else. It is literally sold in every other shop.
I’m so sleepy. I’m turning out the light any minute now.
