An adventure to Hiroshima

I’ll start with the end. We didn’t make it to Hiroshima. 

Back to the beginning - we got on the Shinkansen (bullet train) in Tokyo early afternoon on Wednesday 9/10, bright eyed and looking forward to enjoying our premium seats, riding it (they can go as fast as 200 mph), and seeing history from a Japanese perspective (i.e. World War II and the impact on Hiroshima).  

Train ride from Tokyo to Hiroshima - 4 hr 46 minutes 

It seems that the universe had different plans. Our ride from Tokyo to Hiroshima was going smoothly for the first 3.5 hours. With about an hour left to Hiroshima, the train conductor announced that it’d been raining all day in Hiroshima and there were signal issues on the track between Hiroshima and Hakata (the last station on the Shinkansen line). As a consequence, all stops past the upcoming station (Okayama in our case) was cancelled and we’d have to get off the train at Okayama. 

The approach to Okayama Station was slow and took more than 30 minutes (compared to the usual 5 minutes). Several trains ahead of us were de-boarding as well. A Shinkansen leaves Tokyo approximately every 20 minutes and there were 5 trains ahead of us.  

Once at Okayama Station, we were not ready for the number of people and the long lines. Station managers were not either. 

They struggled with the flow of people. It was a small station and it just couldn’t handle the sudden influx of unexpected passengers. Chris and I divided and conquered: I was responsible for rebooking our tickets back to Kyoto. Chris was responsible to get a refund. After fighting our way through the long lines, we completed our respective tasks within 1.5 hours. While waiting on line, Chris booked us an hotel for an additional 2 nights in Kyoto.

Okayama to Kyoto - 1 hour 

While we’re disappointed that we won’t get to see Hiroshima, we are happy we get more time to visit Kyoto. With this adjustment, we’ll now be in Kyoto 5 nights rather the pre-scheduled 3 nights. 

More importantly, Chris and I adapted quickly and continued to explore Japan through our windows on our way back to Kyoto. There is of course an obvious agricultural economy in Japan and I expected that. However, I didn’t expect so many tall and luscious mountains.