Hiroshima

The third Monday in September is Respect-for-the-Aged Day, and we got the day off the Friday before (in exchange for working the Sunday of Tsushima High's Sports Festival. That gave me a four-day weekend, and I seized it as a golden opportunity to do some travel in Japan. Previously, my only experience with non-subway trains had been the Taipei-Tainan express I took with Julie last year. I decided to fix that, and to go somewhere on the Shinkansen. The destination itself was a bit of an afterthought: Hiroshima.

I went to Hakata Station in Fukuoka, the western terminus of the continuous Shinkansen lines from Tokyo. I strolled up to the ticket line, tried in vain to find Hiroshima on the timetable, and decided just to wing it when I got to the counter. I did, and caught the next train out.

The ride was about two hours, and largely uneventful. I stepped out of the station into a downpour, and stubbornly decided to walk through it. The only cause for concern was the rain soaking through my backpack to my laptop and camera (which I bought at home in August), but the rain was strong enough (and my umbrella small enough) to make me give in and hail a taxi.

I had made no reservations whatsoever, deciding to completely wing the trip. I'd seen there was a Comfort Hotel near the Peace Memorial, and since that was one of the only two landmarks I knew of in Hiroshima, I went there. Luckily, they had vacancies. The weather was soggy for the rest of the day, so I spent most of the afternoon relaxing in the room, researching things to do the rest of the weekend in the city...