Tokyo to Hiroshima by Shinkansen
Now I am in Hiroshima. It took 4 hours on the fast train to get here but it was 20 minutes late.
Today is also a national holiday, culture day. I experienced bad culture in Tokyo station.
Fortunately, I had booked my ticket a month ago, exactly, on the minute they went on sale, and secured a discounted ticket even, for travelling on a national holiday. In the Tokyo station today, the crush was particularly intense, made worse by the positioning of the ticket machines, ticket collection machines, please help me counters etc. all being directly in front of the entry gates. No one knew if they were in a queue to go in the gate, or to go to one of the different types of machines or to talk to a person who's job is to tell you that you were in the wrong line.
To make matters worse, there was a small army of men on step ladders with megaphones, getting in the way and adding nothing of value. Once inside the gate, I did not know which platform to go to, as I could not get close enough to a screen to read it, but I found myself in a line of 100+ women, which I eventually discovered was the line for the toilet. No wonder they looked uncomfortable with me in their line.
Eventually I found a screen telling me my platform, and so I lined up for the stairs and found myself up on the platform with still about 30 minutes to spare, so I pushed my way past all the people lined up for unreserved carriages all the way to the end of the platform for some much wanted clean air.
Now that I am in Hiroshima, the station is a construction zone, my hotel is very close to it, it is the same chain as my previous hotel, the weather is great, and I am eating crab snacks for a very late lunch.
Apparently train and hotel toilets are the photos people like the best, so here is inside Tokyo station, a less busy bit where I could actually get my camera out of my backpack.
And now for the first of 2 train pics. Pic one of two has 5 trains. The front of that train is filthy.
Pic 2 of 2 has just the one train.
This is the outside of my Sotestu Fresa Inn, in Hiroshima.
And as mentioned above, the station is being rebuilt, exiting was via walls of white plastic. Also, bonus tram. I think Hiroshima has the largest tram network in Japan.
And now as a special treat, multiple hotel room related photos. The first is my room. Much the same as the last, except the tv is on the wall at the foot of the bed.
And of course, the all important toilet photo, featuring another fine example from the artisans at Toto, the very same who bless the rains down in Africa.
And in a super rare treat, my room has a view. I am in the last room on the top floor, which is the murder room in most scooby doo related tv shows. But the cost for being in the cursed room at the end of the hall is you get a view.
Hiroshima shopping area
Let me check when I was last here... November 2015. It rained much of the time I was here then. Anyway, 8 years later and quite a lot has changed in the down town area, at least I think it has. Generally this means Parco has taken over entire city blocks. They seem to be the department store on the rise across Japan.
It was actually not as busy as I expected it to be, however the okonomiyaki tower place had a huge line going up the stairs, so I will probably save that for Monday night.
I think the station area, which is about a 20 minute walk from the main shopping area, has had the most amount of change. A lot more shops and big buildings than I remember.
Later I will do a forensic comparison between 2015 and 2023.
First I had to cross a bridge. The water was very still. No wind. On the way here today the pollution out the train window was horrendous, so a bit of wind would probably be a good thing.
Here is the start of the covered shopping streets. There are a lot of them here. Yes I know what they are called in Japanese. No I will not be using the Japanese word.
I guess this is the main street. I am almost certain I took a photo from the same spot in 2015.
A Parco appears, dissecting all the covered shopping streets.
This is probably the main outdoor undercover mall. See what I did there?
The local book off had a good collection of used musical gear. I do not know why I bother looking, importing anything to Australia would be a massive drama.
I climbed up the tram gantry for this view of a random street.
For dinner, udon, with what was claimed to be wild local vegetables, which I suspect was frozen vegetables out of a bag. For my deep fried surprises I chose pumpkin and lotus root.
Harsh, but fair. I don't eat Gyoza.
The big Sogo lives on. It looks like a relic.
And for tonight's final shot, the abandoned MUSTY underground mall. Actually it did not smell musty, it had distinct odour of leaded petrol.