Hiroshima

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, a city of around 1.2 million people founded in 1589 as a castle town on the delta of the Ōta River. On 6 August 1945, at 8:15 in the morning, it became the first military target of a nuclear weapon in history, and the bombing killed as many as 140,000 people. The memorial park was laid out around the A-Bomb Dome between 1950 and 1964, and most visitors come for two things: the Peace Memorial Park in the centre and the island of Miyajima in the bay. Give it a full day at least, and a night if you want both without rushing.

The Peace Memorial Park, designed by the architect Kenzō Tange, was laid out on the open ground the explosion left behind, and it draws more than a million visitors a year. The A-Bomb Dome, the ruin that stayed standing, was added to the UNESCO list in December 1996, and the Peace Memorial Museum has stood in the park since 1955. Go quietly: it is a memorial first. Miyajima, properly Itsukushima, has been counted among the Three Views of Japan since 1643; its shrine is on the UNESCO list, the five-storied pagoda dates from 1407, and a ropeway leaves a 30-minute walk to the 535-metre top of Mount Misen.

Hiroshima counts among the easy day trips from the Osaka end of the classic first route, so it fits after Kyoto and Osaka rather than into a Tokyo week. On a Japan Rail Pass, remember that Nozomi and Mizuho services have needed a supplement since 1 October 2023, and check your train’s journey time when you book. In the city, the Peace Memorial Park is central and easy on foot. Miyajima is its own half day on an island in the bay; check the route there, and to Hiroshima itself, in a transit app. A Suica or Pasmo IC card covers local trains and buses, and cash still helps at small restaurants and shrines.

Cherry blossom arrives mid-March into April and the autumn colour from late October to early December, when Miyajima’s maples turn. The rainy season runs early June to mid-July, typhoons come from June to December, peaking from July to September, and the city holds its Peace Memorial Ceremony in the park on 6 August every year. The Flower Festival fills the same park from 3 to 5 May, during Golden Week.

Goodbars sells a Japan eSIM you install at home and switch on when you land; it runs on NTT docomo, Japan's largest mobile network by mobile contracts, and our Japan coverage page shows where it reaches and what independent speed tests measure. Renting a pocket Wi-Fi is a long-standing habit for visitors to Japan too, and it suits a group that moves together all day.