[TBD]: Japan 2024 - Travel day to Hiroshima on the Bullet Train (June 3)

Today was a travel day to Hiroshima. The morning started with a jolt when an emergency phone alert was received that exclaimed “EARTHQUAKE”. AA’s adrenaline shot up and everyone quickly searched their phones to see what was going on. DD got up to stay with the kids in case they needed to do something. Thankfully the earthquake was many hundred kilometres away from Tokyo and the aftershocks were all isolated to that same region.

After having some breakfast, the kids were allowed to play video games while the adults finished packing and figuring out their plan to get to Tokyo station to catch the bullet train.

At 10am, it was time to call some cabs to take everyone and their bags to Tokyo Station. It was a short 25 mins ride and fairly stress free, although AA was stressing about how much space would be available for bags on the train.

At the station, it was time to find some food options to bring on the Shinkansen for the 4 hrs journey from Tokyo to Hiroshima. With food in bags and bladders emptied (and after a relatively short wait), the crew was onboard their train with all bags up on the overhead racks.

The train ride was very comfortable - a smooth and fast ride. AA was able to get an app that measured their speed on the train - an astonishing 296 km/h was the max speed. It was FAST!

The gang passed time by various methods - eating for some, playing video games for some, reading for AA and blogging for Lola. In the end, Lola was disappointed when the blog did not save and she lost all of her hard work. We are now blogging on the iPad in Notes and copying the scripture into the blog…

Once in Hiroshima, it was time to once again empty bladders and to find where they were to catch their shuttle to the hotel. After searching the train station for a mislabeled visitor centre (mislabeled on an old online map), AA finally found a visitor info kiosk and asked where to catch the shuttle which was just across the driveway at Stop number 8 or 9.

Since there was a little more time to kill before the shuttle would arrive, it was decided that we should scout out the station for food options for the journey back east in a couple days. The kids were saying they were hungry (B didn’t eat or drink on the train) so some smoothies were sought out.

We got on the free coach bus to get to the Hotel. We arrived at the Grand Prince Hotel, the site of the G7 summit in 2023. The hotel is very fancy and grand. We unfortunately didn’t get rooms on the same floor but we made it work.

View from our hotel room

Lola found a Yakiniku resturant LaGoon, just a 15 minute walk from our hotel, and off we went. The door was at the back of the building, with a nice zen garden to walk to a very short door. AA made a reservation before we got there, so we got to our table right away.

We didn’t know the kinds of meat to order, but tried our best. We had a great time, and most of the meat was good. Chicken neck, waygu beef sirloin, beef tongue, veggies, and rice. AA ordered special onion rings, that were very neat, as there wasn’t a ring of onion in it. We had a system, DD and Lola loaded the fire to cook the food, AA cut and served the food, and the rest enjoyed it. This was such a fun experience.

After supper we walked back, and the kids headed to bed. AA and Lola went to the convenience store in the hotel to get some drinks and snacks for the adults to enjoy. The adults hung out in the little entry way between the beds and the bathrooms and the door of the hotel room. AA, DD and Lola played cribbage, and MBMell visited and was on her phone catching up on the day/night.