Hiroshima, Japan – Taking the bullet train from Tokyo.

After 3 days in Tokyo it was time to move to our next destination – Hiroshima. We had decided to travel using the bullet train as it was only 4 hours (compared to 9 hours driving) and the way our itinerary worked meant we could buy Shinkansen passes which gave us 7 days unlimited travel on the bullet trains. We also decided to treat ourselves and opted for the green car – which is the equivilent of business class.

When we booked our hotel in Tokyo we hadn’t realised that its nearest train station – Shinagawa Station – was on the Shinkansen (bullet train) line. It was therefore very easy to check out in the morning, walk 5 minutes with our bags and wait for our train.

*^{Bullet train arriving at the station}*

We were so impressed that it arrived on time (not used to that in England!) and you have to get on very quickly as there is maybe a two minute window before the doors close and the train departs. The train was immaculately clean, we had so much space and our carriage was also quite empty.

^{Inside the Green Car on the Shinkansen}

I’d bought myself some lunch for the journey – one of the viral fruit sandwiches that I had seen on tik tok. I didn’t really like it. It was just fruit, cream and bread!

When we arrived at Hiroshima Station we waited in line for a taxi and there was a massive commotion outside the Sheraton Hotel which is next to the station. Quite a famous sports team was arriving – we think they were one of the Japanese baseball teams. Anyway, we got into our taxi which took us to the Hilton Hiroshima – our hotel for the next 3 nights. The hotel was beautiful and because Stu is a gold member all of our rooms were upgraded.

*^{Bonsai Tree in the foyer of the Hilton.}*

^{Stuart and my room}

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

At this stage it was only about 4pm so we decided to walk to the Peace Memorial Park which was 20 minutes away – although it is quite a hard walk when it is 35 degrees outside! We didn’t visit the museum as we were planning to do that later in our stay but we visited the monuments and walked around the A Dome. The A Dome is one of the only buildings that survived after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.