A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Hiroshima, WTRD 22, September 25, 2017

Hiroshima Tea and Sleeping Room

We really loved our retreat in the woods, and it was hard to leave this lovely Japanese wooden house. But the time had come, so we packed up our gear and moved out by 8:30 am.  We sighed a collaborative sigh of relief when we brought the rental car back without any dents or scratches.  The narrow mountain roads, lack of shoulders, cyclists with nowhere to get out of the way forcing cars over the line of opposing traffic, and big fat buses and delivery vans taking up their entire lane did not make for enjoyable country driving.

We turned in the car, boarded the train from Hakone to Odawara.  We got to Odawara almost two hours before our train, so I sat in Starbucks having a long leisurely latte.  Russ used the  time to find a cola, some take out lunch, and reserve train tickets for the upcoming days.   It sure is nice having a Japan Rail pass, and we appreciated it even more after the goofy mistake we were about to make.

The trains roll through the station at amazing speeds.

They stop just long enough for passengers to disembark, embark, and the train  rolls out.  Trains run about 2 minutes apart.  We were on the right track lined up for car number nine, the reserved first class car.  Our ticket was for 12:08.  A train came into the station  at 12:02.  We boarded and failed to notice an important detail.  It wasn't our train!

We sat down in what we thought were our assigned seats in a car with only a few passengers.  The train sped out of the station and the written welcome announcement flashed on the screen telling us the train number and destination.  Uh oh!

Uh Oh!

Our train didn't leave until 12:08.   It wasn't early.  We were on the wrong train, and our train was probably rolling into the station on the track right behind us as we took off and is now shooting ahead of us.  Oh well, we will have to pay better attention next time, but what to do now?

This train was headed for Nagoya, but we didn't recognize any of the stops along the way.  We were going in the right direction, but with many more stops,  and we wouldn't make our connecting train to Hiroshima if we stayed on this train. We couldn't find a conductor, so we decided to get off the train at the next station.  There were two young men sitting in the last seat of the car where we were collecting our baggage that was stowed behind their seats.  While Russ was getting our luggage, I pulled out my ticket and pointed to it to confirm whether we were on the right train or not.  No he said, we were going in the right direction but much more slowly than the train we had booked.  He suggested, we get off and find a platform conductor.

So we piled out of the train.  I saw a conductor two cars down.  I ran down the track while Russ stood by the luggage.  In my non-existent Japanese and his non-existent English, he looked at my ticket and told me to get back on the train.  By this time, the young man who had advised us to get off the train, had thought better of it and had gotten off to help.  He ran up to the conductor and he got the same story.  So he helped us toss the luggage back in the train, and we got back on the train just as it was pulling out.  He advised us to find the in-train conductor.

Once again, we stowed the luggage and sat down in some vacant seats close to the exit and in front of the young man who had helped us.  Russ went forward and then aft looking for a conductor.  He came back with a look of bemusement on his face. The conductor speaking and understanding only Japanese, finally conveyed to Russ that he would come back to us and tell us when to get off the train. We made one stop after another.  Finally the conductor came back and in fast Japanese (not that we would have understood if had spoken slower) explained to us where and when to get off.  We didn't understand at all what he was conveying to us.  Once again, I asked the young man sitting behind us. "What did he say"?

The man asked the conductor for the timetable book he was carrying, thumbed through the pages and told us to get off at a station before Nagoya where we could catch a faster train that would take us to Shin-Osaka in time to make our original connection to Hiroshima.  We asked if we needed to go to the ticket station and get re-ticketed for the change over to a faster train. No, he told us the conductor could ticket us on the train since we had a Japan Rail pass.  We thanked him and got off the train where we were instructed.  Before the train left, the young man saw us standing where we disembarked.   He scrambled out of the train before it took off and told us to walk up the platform and board cars 1,2,3,4 or 5 second class cars on the transfer train since we would not have a reserved seat. We thanked him again for the 10th time and waved goodbye as the train sped off, and our new train sped in as we walked to car 5 gate.

We boarded car 5, second class.  It was nice, but many more passengers.  We took the last two seats in a three seat row in the back of the car near our luggage.

When the conductor came through, he re-ticketed us to a first car class car with reserved seats.  We were only going two stops on this train and weren't sure it was even worth our while to move, but since he had taken the time to re-ticket us, we moved back to the first class car for two stops.

After two stops, we disembarked hoping that our connection was just across the platform.  It wasn't, but it was close enough.  We just had to go down the escalator, under the track, and up the other side. On our original ticket, we would have had to wait 35 minutes between train transfers.  Now we had only a 6 minute wait. We boarded the right train on the right track, going to the right destination!.

High five!

So it all turned out fine. and we arrived in Hiroshima on the correct train and on schedule time.

Lessons learned:
1)  Pay attention to the clock.  The time on the ticket is exactly when it leaves.
2)  Pay attention to the neon sign on the side of the train to confirm the number and destination.
3)  Relax, there are so many options and frequency of trains, that it will all work out in the end even if you screw up.
4)  It is nice to have the rail pass.  Not sure how we would have quickly resolved a wrong train issue otherwise.
5)  The Japanese people we have met are wonderfully kind and helpful even if we don't speak their language.

We arrived in Hiroshima, found our way to our new digs.  Nothing compares to our wooded house in the forest, but our new Airbnb will work out just fine.

Another height challenged door.

It has all the necessities and two tea rooms or sleeping rooms, plus a dedicated bedroom with a queen size bed.

Internet is pretty slow, so not sure how many photos we will be able to upload the next few days.


I didn't think  we would have much to write about tonight, so I thought I would share a new packing bag I bought for this trip.  In trips past I have used packing bags to separate out underwear, short sleeve and long sleeve tops, pants and skirts.  This has worked fined, but it does require opening each bag to assemble an outfit and to repack fresh laundry.   To avoid anything that causes undo  travel fatigue, I wanted to try something more casual in the way of packing and repacking every night.

I found this hanging closet online, and I love it.  I pack my skirts/pants in a regular packing bag that fits in the bottom of my carry-on.  The hanging closet holds all of the other clothes and accessories (scarves, underwear, etc.), and a dirty clothes basket at the bottom.  It collapses into the suitcase

 and extends while in the closet.  My cosmetic shower bag fits on top.   Love it, love it, love it. Soooo easy.

All is well with the Worrall Travel R's who made it to Hiroshima.