3 Days in Hiroshima

The Dome was a cheerful building once. The Czech architect Jan Letzel finished it in April 1915 as the Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall, with a copper dome on top. At 8:15 on the morning of 6 August 1945 the bomb exploded about 600 meters above the city, close to this spot, and the building was gutted but its walls and the skeleton of the dome stayed up. Plans after the war were to tear it down with the other ruins. In 1966 the city council resolved to keep it as it is, for good, and UNESCO listed it in 1996.

You can't go inside, and you don't need to. Walk the riverbank, take your time, and go early, before the tour groups. Keep voices low: people come here to grieve, not only to look.

Walk south through the Peace Park and the memorials appear one after another. The Children's Peace Monument is a girl with outstretched arms and a folded paper crane rising above her, built for the children who died and for Sadako Sasaki, who died of leukemia in October 1955, ten years after the bombing.

Further on, a saddle-shaped concrete arch covers the Cenotaph, which holds the names of everyone known to have died because of the bomb. The arch is placed so that, standing under it, you look straight through to the Peace Flame and the Dome beyond. Every 6 August the city's Peace Memorial Ceremony is held in front of it, starting at 8:00. On an ordinary morning it's quiet and plain, and that's what makes it work.

The museum is the heart of the day, and it's meant to be hard. The exhibits cover Hiroshima's role in the war, the day itself and the years after: clothes, watches stopped at 8:15, photographs, testimony. The City of Hiroshima says about 350,000 people were in the city when the bomb exploded, and that roughly 140,000 had died by the end of December 1945. It also says the exact number of dead is still unknown, so treat any figure you read elsewhere with that in mind. These are the city's numbers, not ours.

Give it two to three hours and don't schedule anything demanding afterwards. Hours are 7:30 to 19:00 from September to November (7:30 to 18:00 from December to February), with the last entry 30 minutes before closing. The museum recommends the early slot (7:30 to 8:30) or the evening, because the middle of the day is the most crowded. Those slots need a web ticket booked in advance, and entry can be paused when it's crowded. Closed 30 and 31 December and in mid-February (15-20 February in 2027).

The castle is a twenty-minute walk north of the Dome, or a short tram ride. Mori Terumoto built it in the 1590s, and locals call it Carp Castle (Rijo). The atomic bomb destroyed what the Meiji era had left standing, and the main keep was rebuilt in concrete in 1958.

That keep closed to visitors on 22 March 2026 because the 1958 structure has aged. The city hasn't decided what comes next (a wooden reconstruction is among the ideas), and no reopening date is set. The grounds and moat are open and free, and the keep makes a fine photo from outside. Skip the castle if you're short on time: it's the least essential stop of the day.

Ten minutes east of the castle is the best way to recover from the morning. Shukkeien was laid out from 1620 for Asano Nagaakira, lord of the Hiroshima domain, by his tea master Ueda Soko, as a miniature landscape of ponds, islands, bridges and tea houses. The Asano family donated it to the prefecture in 1940. Five years later the bombing wrecked it, and survivors took refuge here. It was restored and reopened.

Walk the loop slowly; in November the maples around the pond are the point. It's open 9:00 to 17:00 (last entry 16:30). In 2026 it stays open until 21:00 from 20 to 29 November for a lit maple festival.

Okonomimura is a building with three floors of counters, more than twenty shops, each with a steel griddle (teppan) in front of you. Hiroshima okonomiyaki is not the Osaka pancake. The cook builds it in layers on the griddle: a thin crepe, a mountain of cabbage, pork, a fried egg, and noodles (soba or udon) in the middle, all topped with a sweet-sour brown sauce. In Osaka the cabbage is mixed into the batter and there are no noodles. The dish took its modern form after 1945, when a cheap prewar pancake called issen yoshoku became a way to feed hungry survivors.

Each counter keeps its own days and hours, most opening around 11:00. Pick a shop with locals at the counter and watch the cook. Order it with oysters in season.

Take the JR Sanyo line from Hiroshima to Miyajimaguchi (about 30 minutes), then the ferry, about ten minutes. The JR West ferry costs 200 JPY each way and is free with the Japan Rail Pass and JR West passes; the Matsudai ferry leaves from the same terminal. A 100 JPY Miyajima visitor tax, in force since October 2023, is collected when you board.

The JR ferry also runs Great Torii sailings, roughly 9:10 to 16:10, that pass close to the gate. Take one if it's leaving soon.

The shrine is built over the water on the north shore of the island, so it never stands on dry ground at high tide. Taira no Kiyomori gave it its present form in 1168, and it has been a World Heritage Site since 1996. Red corridors run on stilts across the tide, with the shrine halls at the end, and above them on the hill sits the Senjokaku, begun under Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 16th century.

The tide decides how it looks. At high tide the whole complex seems to float. At low tide the sea drains away and the bay is a mud flat. The Miyajima Tourist Association tide tool gives, for each date, the hours when the shrine looks afloat and when you can walk to the gate. On 9 November 2026 the shrine floated from 7:15 to 12:15 and again from 19:00 to 23:00. The shrine is open 6:30 to 17:30 from mid-October to November, every day, and you can't enter after sunset. A 500 JPY ticket (2.80 EUR) adds the treasure hall.

The great gate of Itsukushima, the O-torii, stands about 200 meters out from the shrine hall. It's about 16.8 meters tall, built of camphor wood, coated in vermilion lacquer, and held in the seabed by its own weight. The one you see today is the ninth, put up in 1875.

At high tide the gate floats and you see it from the shrine corridor. When the level falls under about 100 centimeters, you can walk across the seabed and touch the pillars. The tide tool lists the walk windows, and on some days none fall in daylight. If your window is a daytime low tide, do the walk first and the shrine afterwards.

The shopping street behind the shrine, Omotesando, is the island's lunch counter. Three things to try: grilled oysters in season, conger eel rice (anago-meshi), and the island's maple-leaf cakes, momiji manju. Momijido Honten, on this street, has been making them since 1912. Its fried version, age-momiji, was introduced in 2002: a cake on a stick, dipped in a light tempura batter and fried to order.

Eat the fried one warm and away from the deer, which will snatch a bag if you let them. Shops keep their own hours, so lunch here rather than late.

Daishoin is the temple at the start of the Daishoin hiking route up Misen, a short walk from the shrine and on the way to Momijidani. The climb from here takes 1.5 to 2 hours. It's quieter than the shrine. On 21 November 2026 a night market opens the shrine for an evening visit until 19:30, with lights in Momijidani and at Daishoin.

Momijidani, the Maple Valley, is where the island's autumn colors are best. The park sits at the foot of Mount Misen (535 meters), the sacred mountain of Miyajima, where Kukai is said to have visited in 806. The ropeway starts from Momijidani Station and goes in two stages, a ten-minute ride and a four-minute ride, to Shishiiwa Station near the summit. A return ticket is 2,000 JPY and a one-way 1,100 JPY (6.20 EUR). The summit is a further walk from the top station.

Colors on Miyajima usually peak in the second half of November; on 9 November the japan-guide forecast still said starting to change. Cabins go up from 9:00 to 16:00, the last one down leaves at 16:30. In November the ropeway asks for advance reservations on weekends and holidays (in 2026: 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 23, 28 and 29), which is one reason this guide uses weekdays. The Reikado hall near the summit, home of the "eternal flame", burned down on 20 May 2026, so expect a rebuilding site. Check with Daishoin before you climb.

The shrine and gate are lit until 23:00 every day. At high tide the lit gate stands in black water, and that's the picture you came for. You can't enter the shrine after sunset, so walk the shore and look. Check the last ferry back to Miyajimaguchi before you settle in, or sleep on the island.

Kintaikyo is a wooden bridge of five arches over the Nishiki River, built in 1673 by the local lord Kikkawa Hiroyoshi. A flood broke it in 1674, he had the stone foundations strengthened, and then it stood for 276 years. The Kijiya typhoon washed it away in September 1950. It was rebuilt in 1953 with a wooden top, because the townspeople wanted wood. From 2001 to 2004 the whole bridge was replaced again.

That replacement is the point. In the Edo period the arches were rebuilt about every 20 years, partly to keep the carpenters' skills alive. A toll has been charged since 1966; before that the domain's own levy paid for the bridge. The booth is staffed 8:00 to 17:00 (longer in summer), and after hours you drop the coins in a box. Cross it twice: once for the castle on the hill, once for the river.

Kikko Park lies over the bridge at the foot of the castle hill. It's open around the clock and known for its autumn maples. The Kikkawa Historical Museum holds the ruling family's weapons, and a small free museum covers Iwakuni's white snakes, a local curiosity treated as a lucky messenger. Go in the morning, before the groups arrive.

Iwakuni sushi isn't what most people picture when they hear Sushi. It's pressed in a square wooden mold in layers, with lotus root, shiitake, egg and other toppings, and cut into blocks like a cake. It's also called tonosama sushi, lord's sushi.

Several places near the bridge serve it as a set. Hirasei sits in the old town across from the bridge and serves lunch from 11:00 to 14:00 (closing days vary, so check); Hangetsuan, a restaurant and inn that began as a tea house in 1869, is two minutes away. Confirm hours before you go.

A ropeway climbs from Kikko Park up Shiroyama to the castle. The Kikkawa built the original, but it stood only seven years before the shogunate's one-castle-per-domain order of 1615 had it torn down. The tower you see is a replica from 1962. The real reward is the view of the bridge and the river, and with the maples below in November it's the best photograph of the trip.

The castle is open until about 16:45 and the ropeway runs every 15 minutes. Walk down if the weather is good.

Back in Hiroshima, finish with the city's other famous food. Oysters are in season from around October to March, and Kanawa is a restaurant on a boat moored in the Motoyasu River near the Peace Park. Listings give lunch and dinner hours, but they differ by source, so call ahead to check the boat is open.