Wednesday, JULY 16, 2025 - travel day to Hiroshima

It was the light through the screen which awakened me today, such a gentle way to wake up. Karin was already sitting on the floor at the low table typing her blog. Interesting is that we got ready for the day as well as completed packing for our 10 am check out. It was a  beautiful lobby - a little stream, water falling over rocks and wooden furniture arranged in conversational settings. 

It had rained and it was of course humid, and the streets and sidewalks were only damp as we walked to the central train station. Hundreds of people were entering and leaving. We had time to eat breakfast and took the elevator down two levels and found a French bakery cafe.  I enjoyed a crusty roll filled with chickens and mushroom and an iced lattes- both delicious.  I even picked up a large roll with tomato and avocado slices to eat on the bullet train.  We still had time to admire the modern ceiling design and pedestrian walkways above the entrance to the platform areas until our train was listed on the board.  We still had a ways to walk through the inside  area to locate our correct platform and car.  We arrived before the train and had time to board, stow our luggage and locate our seats, before the train departed precisely on time, 12:02 pm. I note that station time is very short, perhaps fewer than 5 minutes. 

The bullet train ride to Hiroshima was about 90 minutes. At 190 mph we covered the 300 miles rapidly. The ride was smooth and quie i did see more open area than on the ride from Tokyo to Osaka.  There were larger fields, but mostly the area was built up, again, with small houses pavked snuggly together before green hills.

In Hiroshima we took a cab to our hotel, on the peninsula, near the bay. It is elegant, so elegant that it hosted the 2023 G7  meeting. The expasive lobby showed photos of the gathering as well as the flags of the seven nations. Can you name the seven attending nations?

The afternoon was a clothes washing adventure.  As the hotel has only a laundry service we opted to take our laundry to a local one. We took an Uber to a clean laundromat with many open machines. Now began  the advent2ure. Language challenges,  machine spilling water onto the floor, wiping the floor with omly a hand towel. a frustrated man who rode here on his bicycle three time to use the machine which we were using and which flooded the floor, a strange soap dispenser, a dried floor and empty  machine which the manused and left and which began flooding again. We left for the local Family Mart as soon as our laundry was done, feeling g guilty for what we must have done but not sure what it was.

We picked up food for us all for supper and awaited an Uber to bring g us back to the hotel. After some laundry was hung to dry I. The closet we sat around a little table and discussed plans - tomorrow the peace museum and park and travel plans for Sunday when I leave them for my school nurse international conference in Gotemba and their first night at a nearby hotel before their first full day in Disneyland. Leo is excited.

Kenji and Karin are thorough in their research and planning, a d they share their plans and request feedback. The democratic process if sharing,hibi g feedback, discussing, and coming to an agreement is alive and well.

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