The Ultimate Hiroshima Travel Guide

A modern, livable city rebuilt around its own history — the Atomic Bomb Dome and Peace Memorial Park, a reconstructed castle and Edo-period garden, a 500-meter covered shopping arcade, and the short ferry ride to Miyajima and its floating torii gate.

Hiroshima was struck by the world’s first wartime atomic bomb on August 6, 1945, an event that killed tens of thousands of people immediately and many more in the years that followed. Rather than move away from that history, the rebuilt city placed it at its center — the Peace Memorial Park and Museum stand near the bomb’s hypocenter, and the Atomic Bomb Dome has been preserved exactly as it stood since the city decided in 1966 to keep it that way indefinitely. Hiroshima today is a modern, walkable city sitting directly on the Sanyo Shinkansen line, easily reached from Osaka or Kyoto, and it makes just as much sense as a base for the short ferry crossing to Miyajima as it does a destination of its own. Here’s a closer look at the history, the castle and garden beyond it, and the food that make Hiroshima worth more than a rushed stop on the way west.

Peace Memorial Park & History

The Dome, the museum, and the annual ceremony that placed Hiroshima's history at the center of the rebuilt city, rather than moving away from it.

1
Atomic Bomb Dome
The skeletal ruin of the former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall stands almost exactly where the atomic bomb detonated on August 6, 1945, one of the only structures left standing near the hypocenter. Hiroshima decided in 1966 to preserve the ruin indefinitely rather than rebuild it, and UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 1996. It's usually the first thing visitors see on approaching Peace Memorial Park across the Motoyasu River, and the sight of its exposed dome frame against the modern skyline is one of the most quietly affecting views in Japan.
Viewable from outside only, 24 hours; interior closed to visitors1-10 Otemachi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima 730-0811
Hiroshima
2
Peace Memorial Park & Museum
The park brings together the Peace Memorial Museum, the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound, the Children's Peace Monument and its ropes of folded paper cranes, and the Cenotaph, positioned so that a visitor standing before it can see straight through to the Dome across the river. The museum's exhibits, built around personal belongings and testimony from survivors, are unflinching about what happened here — expect an unhurried hour or two, and consider booking an online ticket in advance during the busy first week of August, when timed entry is required.
7:30 AM – 6:00 PM (Dec–Feb), extending to 7:00 PM most other months and 8:00 PM in August; last admission 30 min before close1-2 Nakajima-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima 730-0811
3
Peace Memorial Ceremony
Every August 6, Hiroshima marks the anniversary of the bombing with a Peace Memorial Ceremony in the park, observing a moment of silence at 8:15 a.m., the exact time of the blast. That evening, the Toro Nagashi lantern-floating ceremony sends thousands of paper lanterns, each inscribed with a message, drifting down the Motoyasu River past the illuminated Dome — a solemn, striking scene that draws visitors from well beyond Japan.

Attractions

A reconstructed castle, an Edo-period garden, the city's main shopping street, and the short crossing to Miyajima's floating torii gate.

1
Hiroshima Castle
The original 16th-century castle was destroyed in the atomic bombing; the black, five-story keep standing today is a concrete reconstruction completed in 1958, now serving as a history museum with samurai armor and displays on the city's feudal past. The keep's interior is closed for renovation from March 2026, but the surrounding grounds, the reflective moat, and the neighboring Gokoku Shrine remain open and are worth the walk regardless.
9:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Mar–Nov), 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (Dec–Feb); keep interior closed for renovation from March 202621-1 Motomachi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima 730-0011
2
Shukkeien Garden
Laid out in the 1620s around a central pond in the traditional strolling-garden style, Shukkeien survived close to the hypocenter and reopened to the public in 1951 after briefly sheltering bombing victims in the aftermath. Arched bridges, a teahouse, and views borrowed from the neighboring Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum make it a quiet, contemplative counterpoint to the Peace Memorial Park a short walk away.
9:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Apr–Sep), 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (Oct–Mar), last admission 30 min before close2-11 Kamihatchobori-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima 730-0014
3
Hondori Shopping Arcade
A 577-meter covered arcade running through the city center, Hondori was entirely destroyed in the 1945 bombing and rebuilt from scratch, with the current arcade completed in 1954. Today it's Hiroshima's main shopping street, drawing an estimated 100,000 visitors a day into its roughly 200 shops, cafés, and restaurants — an easy, unhurried way to feel the pulse of the modern city after a morning spent with its history.
8-18 Hondori, Naka-ku, Hiroshima
4
Miyajima & Itsukushima Shrine
A roughly 45-minute tram-and-ferry ride from central Hiroshima, Miyajima is home to Itsukushima Shrine and its famous vermilion torii gate, which appears to float on the water at high tide — regarded as one of Japan's three most scenic views, alongside Amanohashidate and Matsushima. The island is also home to hundreds of free-roaming deer and the wooded slopes of Mount Misen, making it easy to turn a shrine visit into a full day away from the city.
6:30 AM – 6:00 PM (Mar–Oct 14), 6:30 AM – 5:30 PM (Oct 15–Nov), 6:30 AM – 5:00 PM (Dec–Feb)1-1 Miyajima-cho, Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima 739-0588
Miyajima

Culture & Traditions

A tram network that carries its own wartime history, and the baseball team the whole city turns out for.

1
Hiroshima's Historic Trams
Hiroshima runs one of Japan's most extensive streetcar networks, and a handful of its cars carry a specific history: four prewar streetcars survived the atomic bombing and were repaired well enough to return to service within days, nicknamed hibaku densha, or 'A-bombed trains.' Several have since been restored and still run on the regular network alongside modern cars, meaning a routine tram ride between sights can double as a ride on a genuine piece of the city's recovery.
2
Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium & the Carp
Home to the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, one of Japan's most fervently supported professional baseball teams, Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium sits a ten-minute walk from Hiroshima Station and is known for a fan culture that's loud, organized, and genuinely welcoming to visitors who wander in without a ticket plan. Even without following Japanese baseball, a night game here is a good, unfiltered look at a side of the city that has nothing to do with its history.
2-3-1 Minami Kaniya, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 732-8501

Food

Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, the oysters the region is famous for, and the maple-leaf cake that started as a Miyajima souvenir.

1
Hiroshima-Style Okonomiyaki
Hiroshima-yaki builds its okonomiyaki in distinct layers on the griddle — batter, a generous mound of cabbage, meat, and a bed of yakisoba noodles — rather than mixing everything together as in the Osaka style. The layering technique reportedly grew out of postwar food shortages, when cooks stretched thin batter with as much cabbage as they could, and it's still cooked to order in front of you at teppan counters across the city.
2
Oysters
Hiroshima Prefecture produces around 60% of Japan's oysters, farmed on ropes suspended in the calm waters of the Seto Inland Sea around Miyajima and the coast nearby. Served raw, grilled, steamed, or deep-fried, and often nicknamed 'sea milk' for their rich, creamy texture, they're in season roughly from autumn through winter — a grilled oyster stall on Miyajima is one of the easiest, most satisfying detours on the island.
3
Momiji Manju
Momiji manju is a small, maple-leaf-shaped cake usually filled with sweet red bean paste, invented on Miyajima in 1906 by the confectioner Takatsu Tsunesuke at the request of a local inn hoping for a distinctive tea sweet. It caught on well beyond the island and is now sold in bakeries and souvenir shops across greater Hiroshima, with variations filled with custard, chocolate, or cheese alongside the original red bean.

Keep reading

More guides you might like

Itsukushima Shrine floating torii, Miyajima

10 Best Things to Do in Miyajima

A quick, friendly rundown of the torii gate that floats at high tide and can be walked out to at low tide, an unfinished 16th-century hall the size of a thousand tatami mats, a mountain sacred to Shingon Buddhism, and the grilled oysters and conger eel rice that make lunch here worth planning for — a good starting point for a first visit to this small island in Hiroshima Bay.

10 Best Things to Do in Okayama

A quick, friendly rundown of Korakuen, one of Japan's three great gardens, a black-and-gold castle built to be viewed alongside it, a countryside cycling route tied to the Momotaro legend, a 500-year-old winter festival, and the demi-glace pork bowl and scattered sushi that make Okayama worth more than a rushed stopover.

Itsukushima torii gate at sunset, Miyajima

The Ultimate Miyajima Travel Guide

A small island in Hiroshima Bay built around a torii gate that floats at high tide and can be walked out to at low tide — plus an unfinished 16th-century hall the size of a thousand tatami mats, a mountain sacred to Shingon Buddhism, free-roaming deer, and the conger eel rice dish that started as a train-station bento.

Nearby