Day 06 - Fukuoka to Hiroshima

This morning we managed to get a bit of a sleep-in; however, for me there was work to be done. There were so many computer issues with getting out yesterday's Blog, I still needed get it finished.

Once that was done and we were all up, we headed back to Hakata Station for one last time to catch the Shinkansen to Hiroshima.

Kyle getting the suitcases out of the apartment.

As some of you may recall, we visited Hiroshima last year, and it was during this visit that I managed to slip on some large concrete steps (just outside the Atomic Bomb Dome, as fate would have it) injuring my back and preventing us from doing pretty much everything we had planned to do in Hiroshima.

As a reminder, here's last year's Blog entry for Hiroshima:

Day Five - Hiroshima (Not much more to be said really)

Anyway, back to today's Shinkansen ride to Hiroshima. The literal translation for 'Shinkansen' is 'new trunkline', referring to the high-speed rail network that criss-crosses Japan. However, the name Shinkansen has become synonymous with the actual high-speed trains themselves (what Westerners sometimes call Bullet Trains), and there are many different types of Shinkansen. 

Our Shinkansen today was an N700 model operated by JR Kyushu. The N700 travels at up-to-300 kilometres per hour. The distance covered between Hakata and Hiroshima Stations was 285 kilometres and with two stops along the way, the total journey time was around one hour and 15 minutes.

N700 model Shinkansen.

Our Shinkansen after arriving at Hiroshima Station.

The train was pretty crowded, yet still very comfortable. Inside, it's pretty quiet, except when you go through a tunnel, then it sounds like a jet engine on take-off inside an aircraft cabin. Speaking of tunnels, and there were plenty of tunnels, the longest we travelled through, the Shin-Kanmon Tunnel was 18 kilometres long.

After arriving at Hiroshima Station, we headed to a Station Cafe for Brunch, before walking a leisurely 10 minutes to our next accommodation, just before lunch. The apartment is well appointed and very clean. After loading our luggage into the apartment, we checked some brochures and headed back to the station to catch the Meipuru-pu bus.

Walking from Hiroshima Station to the apartment.

Our apartment in Hiroshima.

The Meipuru-pu is a sightseeing bus that is run by JR Rail and stops at all of the main tourism destinations in Hiroshima. It allows you to hop-on and hop-off as you wish. There are three different routes each with it's own colour, and the routes intersect at carious points. We took the red bus to Hiroshima Castle.

Built in 1589 by the feudal lord Mori Terumoto, Hiroshima Castle was an important seat of power in Western Japan for a number of centuries, but it was destroyed by the Atomic Bomb attack in 1945. A complete replica was built in 1958 and serves as a museum of Hiroshima's history pre-1945. It is built from wood (Pine), has five stories, and is also surrounded by a moat and beautiful gardens. 

The moat surrounding Hiroshima Castle.

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to photograph just about all of the exhibits; however, one cool thing was that we managed to get to hold a genuine Samurai Sword, and capture the great views from the fifth-level.

Hiroshima Castle.

Various views from the top.

Playing dress-ups. 

Afterwards, we caught the bus into the city and did some exploring there, particularly in and around Hondori Street. Hondori is a pedestrian arcade that is closed to traffic and lined with shops and restaurants and is about half a kilometre long. This was something that we didn't get to do last year.

Hondori Street.

Maureen is in her element, shopping at the Cat Store.

When we finished there, we caught the bus back to Hiroshima Station and walked back to the apartment. We had dinner in the apartment, after which Sky and Kyle rode the two guest bikes back into the city for some more retail therapy.

So that's it for today, tomorrow we are doing some more site seeing in and around Hiroshima, and finally manage to do the Peace Park properly.