Day 4: Shinkansen to Hiroshima

Today we had more time to finish our breakfasthe buffet starts at 6:30 and the train station is right next to the hotel. We are planning to board the Shinkansen to Hiroshima at 8.25am.

It’s halfway on our trip, and I am already starting to wonder … Will I ever be able to survive using a toilet seat without inbuilt bidet and spraying functions? I don’t need the music or flushing sound effects though (I think I am more than capable of creating my own symphony).

We had plenty to time to arrive to the station and wait for the train to arrive. To my surprise, it’s the N700 – the fastest train in the fleet. Unfortunately Hiroshima is only a 40 min journey so there wasn’t much time to enjoy the experience.

For railway buffs, there are several generations on Shinkansen operating ever since the first train in 1964. These are normally, but not always, linked to classes of service. Tourists on the Japan Rail Pass are restricted to the Kodama (slow) and Hikari (semi fast) services. The N700 is normally restricted to the Nozomi (fast) service.

Although the trains are sometimes referred to as bullet trains in the West, Shinkansen (新幹線) in Japanese means ‘new trunk line’ or ‘new main line’. Over time, this word is used to describe both the railway lines the trains run on and the trains themselves.

We arrived to the hotel and the bags still haven’t arrived yet. As the weather forecast was predicting possibility of rain on Dun, we decided to visit Miyajima today instead of tomorrow.