Today was an early start for we were heading out to Hiroshima to see the Atomic Bomb sight from 1945.
We planned last night to get up early (6.45am to walk out the door at 7.45 so we could walk to the station). Cara has got a cold and Kate doesn't take too kindly to mornings so that didn't really happen, however we did make it.
We decided that instead of walking we would instead catch a taxi. We had been told taxi's were expensive but between 3 of us it was working out to about $3 each which is not very much for door to door service.
So we found a taxi as we were heading to the taxi rank and hailed it. I then got to use my suskoshi Nihongo to ask the driver to take us to the train station. He understood which was good and we were on our way.
We arrived at the station, found our way to the ticket office to get a reserved seat and then found some food before heading to the platform for our train. the train journey was supposed to be 1.5 hours, but that didn't include a bonus 1.5 hour stop in a tunnel due to a power failure. for a long time there was only japanese coming through the speaker but then eventually an english voice said the train was stopped due to a power failure. we decided we were better off not knowing. so there we sat. eventually we started moving again and then arrived at Hiroshima station. We headed to Tourist information where i asked if they spoke english and was overjoyed when they said yes. then we asked about our rail passes to see if they were valid on more than just long train journeys. well they aren't really but thats ok. we are getting good use out of them. well worth it.
so at the desk we also asked for the tram location so we could get on a tram and get to where we going as we had decided that was the best course of action. we found it quite easily and got on. everything here is backwards as we should know from studying it, you get on the back of the tram and then off at the front and pay as you get off. weird but good for crowds.
so we found the tram, figured out our destination, hopped on the right tram and then set off. 6 stops later we hopped off right outside our location. we walked around the A-bomb historic site which was the city hall before it was destroyed. we then headed across the road to have some lunch. Italian of all things would you believe.
after lunch we headed off towards the peace memorial park and then to the peace memorial museum where we spent much of the afternoon. i had a japanese train timetable and have figured out the kanji for Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and a couple of other places, 9 years actually paid off. yay!
we figured out that our train back would leave at 4.14pm so we decided to head back towards the station. we also went via a chemist for Cara where we had an interesting time because after i asked if they spoke english and the answer was no, i was lost. fortunately they had a chart in english of things that were wrong so we used pictures.
then we walked through an undercover mall where Kate was in heaven but Cara and I both reminded her she had very little space. im sure it won't be long before she succumbs.
we found the tram and the way back to hiroshima station but unfortunately missed our train meaning we had to wait for an hour. that was ok. we wandered around. i bought a sudoku book from the home of sudoku and then we headed back to the station. we discovered we had to change at Osaka which proved to be interesting seeing it was peak hour and we had 6 min to get to the next platform but had no idea where we were going. eventually we found a guard and they said we could just change the tickets, which we did and then waited a little for the next Kyoto train. all in all its proving very interesting. im glad i have a little japanese because it would be almost impossible without it.
til next time,
jya matta ne.
No comments:
Post a Comment