October 6, 2024
Today is a transfer day, mostly in the train, so this will be a short post.
We awoke from our comfortable and quiet Kyoto hotel near the train station and went down for breakfast.
Afterwards we packed up and headed down, walking 1 -1/2 blocks to the Kyoto trains station. We bought tickets on the 9:02 bullet train to Hiroshima and smoothly moved up to the platform. You would think we were experts by how smoothly and efficiently we went, compared to our first day in the much bigger Tokyo train station.
The train arrive exactly on time, as it always does in Japan. You know exactly which entry are will be nearest to your seat and walk right on and sit down. The train was not very full, and for some reason I was seated next to an elder Japanese lady. We tried to have a little conversation, out of politeness, but it was short and sweet.
We dozed on and off as the train rushed through the country side, the rice fields, the small towns, and the mountain tunnels, all completely smoothly and quietly, at 150 mph.
After 90 minutes, the familiar chime sounded to be ready to get off the train. The announcer warns you to be ready to go off before the train stops, as it only stops for one minute.
We headed out of the station, and here is where our only bump of the day occurred. Alice had reserved our room in the APA hotel near the station, always smart because we can just walk there easily. But as we drew closer to the hotel it looked closed. We looked at our maps again, and realized our reservation must be at the “other” APA hotel across the river. So we traipsed across the river with suitcases in tow. When we got there, we found out that there is actually another – third – APA hotel, but it is on the other side of the train station. Once again we walk, and now it’s getting quite warm. We found the correct hotel and checked our luggage until we could return at 3 pm to check in.
We had to burn some time, so decided to walk across the river to a natural area , the Shukkeien garden. We found the garden. At first it seemed small and little worn, but as we followed the prescribed route, it was really delightful. Families with children and families with elders strolled the park, and there were some tourists there as well.
One of the most interesting points in the garden was a very large ginko tree that is said to be the only tree in Hiroshima that survived the atomic blast in 1945. It was pushed over to a 40 degree angle, and is still alive.
After finishing our stroll we were hungry. We looked for the nearest restaurant and found one that did not sound very Japanese — Cusco Café. We took a seat and ordered. We were having a little trouble communicating. I wondered if the woman might be South American, and asked her, do you speak Spanish? Suddenly things went very smoothly as she is of mixed heritage Japanese /Peruvian. She explained that many Japanese emigrated to Brazil and Peru after WWII. It was an interesting story and the food was good.
We walked back to the hotel, noting a cool spot to get back to with narrow alleys.
Finally we got into the hotel. It is one of the smallest rooms and there is only room for luggage under the bed, which is a smallish double bed.
After a short nap and a trip to the public hot bath, I got busy with packing for tomorrow. We though we were packing light, but this will be extra light with only two changes of clothes. We are expecting heavy rain tomorrow as we start our bike trip from Onomichi tomorrow morning. We need to finalize our route and rain gear tonight. A mixture of trepidation and excitement as we look forward to the next phase.
In the evening, we headed out to he narrow alleys we spied earlier in the aftenoon, those tiny crowded alleys with dozens of tiny eating an drinking esablishments. The night life would be subdued tonight due to it being Sunday, but still some of the vibe would be present.
We walked around casually. No one wanted to return to the microscopic room where we could barely turn around. But we did, and we slept well.