So today has seen me move cities again - I'm now in Hiroshima. Got to Shin-Osaka station and went to reserve a seat on a train. The first 2 "Hikari" services were pretty busy and had no window seats available. When I asked the guy behind the counter about the "Kodoma" service he looked at me like I was a bit strange, but I eventually convinced him to book me on that train. The reason he thought it strange I wanted that train is because the Kodoma Shinkansen services are the slowest; stopping at every station and sometimes waiting for around 10 minutes to let faster Shinkansen overtake it. Given I wasn't really in much of a hurry I didn't really mind the extra travel time (167 minutes instead of around 90 on a Hikari service).
In the end, I didn't gain that much from having a window seat as the route from Shin-Osaka to Hiroshima seems to involve being in tunnels. When you travel around Japan by rail you really get to see just how mountainous the country is and you start to realise why the big cities tend to build up rather than out, but also you really start to see how every bit of flat land that isn't being used for agriculture has a settlement on it instead. You really do start to wonder how they will cope if the populate continues to grow... Perhaps underground is the way to go!
The hotel is here is a bit of a change from the one in Kyoto. For some reason it was very hard to get accommodation in Kyoto so I ended up in a "city pension" that was basic! Small room with shared bathroom and toilet facilities. I didn't even have a sink of my own. About the only luxuries were an air conditioning unit (that also did heating), a TV and a kettle. Even the curtains were like tracing paper! This place, on the other hand... Check in to be told that I had booked a single room but they'd upgraded me to a twin room which is a bit bigger. I'm also on the 31st floor (accommodation finishes on the 32nd floor) and according to the lift the 31st and 32nd floors are "executive floors"!
So already had a bit of a venture out from the hotel. Just to the north is the Hiroshima Castle. Very little of what is left is original. A lot of it was actually dismantled a long time ago, and what was left was destroyed in a certain incident, of which more tomorrow. The main thing that is left today is the "castle tower". Inside there is a small display spread over 4 floors of the castle's history, and also about the way of life in Hiroshima back in olden times. The 5th floor has a small outside observation deck giving all-round views of the city.
On of the more bizarre things that happened while I was up there was being able to hear brass band music coming from somewhere. After I left the castle I decided to have a wander around the outside of the moat. I eventually discovered the source. I'm not100% certain, but I think it was a high school with a brass band who were practicing outdoors in one of the vehicle entrances by the roadside. They were just about hidden from view by a tall barrier; but it seemed a bit of a strange place to practice. They didn't sound too bad though; even though I have no idea what they were playing.
Anyway, think it's time to put the feet up and watch some more weird Japanese telly before tomorrow's visits, the subject of which are probably fairly obvious to most people!