After spending two nights in Hiroshima, I packed my stuff and decided to back-track to Osaka with a bullet train, and then change at Osaka for a normal express train for Kanazawa. I had the option of pushing further west to Kyushu island, but I reckoned the west coast of Honshu was worth seeing too, considering the lack of time. Anyway I had to head back to Tokyo for a date with missus. Maybe next time :-). Hence my furthest point from Tokyo is Miyajima, some 920 km away by train. Kanazawa, on the other hand, is only 470 km away, but on the other side of Honshu island.
Pics attached are taken during the bullet train ride from Hiroshima to Osaka (with a short 3-hour Himeji lay-over in between). The GPS caught the train doing 280 km/h, though the max speed I recorded was 286 km/h. The scenery was mainly mountainous interspersed with forests, villages and urban areas. Rice-fields were everywhere, even in between buildings in towns. The cabin of the train was very comfortable, spacious and quiet, with just a humming sound.
