Hiroshima Hidden Gems
Hiroshima is a delta city, built on six river channels, and that flat open ground is part of why the 1945 bomb did what it did. The city chose to rebuild around the ruin rather than clear it: the Dome is left in the state it was in, the Peace Memorial Museum is direct and difficult, and the park occupies what had been the commercial heart. It takes half a day and it is not optional. Half an hour away, Miyajima is the opposite in mood but not unrelated — the island was itself considered sacred, which is why the shrine at Itsukushima is built on piers over the water and why the torii stands in the tideline rather than on land. Further east, Onomichi climbs a hillside of temples and cat-filled lanes to the start of the Shimanami Kaido, a cycling route that crosses six islands to Shikoku on dedicated lanes.
40 spots
Climate & Best Season
Mild Inland Sea climate: warm summers, gentle winters, low rainfall. Year-round, with oysters at their best in winter.
Famous For (Food)
- Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki
- Oysters
- Tsukemen
- Momiji manju
Signature Sights
- Peace Memorial Park & Dome
- Itsukushima Shrine, Miyajima
- Onomichi temple walk
- Shimanami Kaido cycling
When to Go
The Inland Sea climate is mild and comparatively dry: January highs near 10°C with rare snow, August above 33°C with humidity. Oysters are harvested from October to March, and Miyajima's oyster festival falls in February. The tide is the thing to plan for on Miyajima — at high water the torii stands in the sea, at low water you can walk out to it, and both are worth seeing, so check the tide table before choosing a ferry. The peace ceremony is held on August 6. Autumn colour in Miyajima's Momijidani valley peaks in mid to late November. The Shimanami is best cycled in May or October.
Getting Around
The Sanyo Shinkansen reaches Hiroshima in about four hours from Tokyo and an hour and a half from Shin-Osaka; Hiroshima Airport is inland with a bus link of around 50 minutes. In the city, the tram network is the practical way to move and runs to the Peace Park and the ferry pier at Miyajimaguchi, which is also a JR stop. Ferries to Miyajima take ten minutes, and a fast boat runs directly from the Peace Park in season. Onomichi is about 90 minutes east by shinkansen and local train. The Shimanami Kaido has bicycle rental at both ends with one-way drop-off, and buses if you would rather not ride.
Local Food
Hiroshima okonomiyaki is layered rather than mixed — batter, a heap of cabbage, pork, then noodles pressed underneath and an egg — and Okonomimura in the city stacks dozens of griddle counters in one building. Oysters are farmed across the bay and eaten grilled in the shell on Miyajima's main street from October. Tsukemen here means cold noodles with a chilli-heavy dipping sauce, a summer dish invented in the city. Momiji manju, maple-leaf cakes filled with bean paste, are made on Miyajima and now come deep-fried as well.
Takehara Preservation District
Takehara made its money from salt and sake. The Seto Inland Sea coast here was laid out as evaporation flats in the seve…
Myoo-in
Myoo-in has two National Treasures on one small hillside: a main hall rebuilt at the end of the Kamakura period and a fi…
Mitarai
Before engines, ships waited for the tide. Mitarai sits on Osakishimojima where the currents are gentler than on the sur…
Taishakukyo Gorge
Taishakukyo runs for about eighteen kilometres through limestone in the north-east of Hiroshima and is one of the two gr…
Joge White Wall Street
Joge sat on the Sekishu road between the Sea of Japan side and the Inland Sea, and in the Edo period it was made a shogu…
Saijo Sakagura Street
Saijo is named alongside Fushimi in Kyoto and Nada in Hyogo as one of the three great sake districts of Japan, and unlik…
Imose Falls
Imose is two falls in one valley behind Ohgashira Shrine, named as a married pair: Otaki, the husband, drops 30 metres i…
Miyoshi Mononoke Museum
In 1749 a sixteen-year-old boy in Miyoshi named Inou Heitaro was, according to the account written down afterwards, visi…
Okunoshima
Okunoshima is a 4.3-kilometre island in the Seto Inland Sea with around seven hundred wild rabbits on it and a very dark…
Fude no Sato Kobo
Kumano makes about eighty per cent of Japan's brushes. It started in the nineteenth century when farmers here, unable to…
Kagura Monzen Toji Mura
Kagura in northern Hiroshima is not a museum piece. Twenty-two amateur troupes in Akitakata alone perform it — masked da…
Sera Kogen Flower Farms
The Sera plateau sits at around four hundred metres in the middle of Hiroshima, on soil that suits flowers better than m…
Kosanji Temple
Kosanji was built by an industrialist who took Buddhist orders after his mother's death and spent thirty years and a for…
Josei Falls
Josei drops 126 metres in three stages down a rock face on a tributary of the Sakugi river, and it is the only waterfall…
Alley Karasukojima
Kure was the Imperial Navy's main base and built the Yamato in a dock a short way from here. The submarine pier at Karas…
Ondo no Seto
Ondo no Seto is a channel about ninety metres across between the mainland and Kurahashi island, one of the busiest stret…
Shirunashi Tantanmen
Soupless dandan noodles are a Hiroshima invention of 2001. The owner of a small shop called Kisaku had eaten the dish in…
Hiroshima Tsukemen
Hiroshima tsukemen has almost nothing in common with the thick-broth dipping noodles served elsewhere in Japan. The nood…
Gansu
Gansu is a fish cake that has been breadcrumbed and deep fried. White fish surimi is worked with a lot of onion and chil…
Innoshima Suigunjo
The Murakami were not pirates in the sense the English word implies. They controlled the passages of the central Inland…
Shimanami Kaido (Onomichi side)
The Shimanami Kaido (しまなみ海道), completed in 1999, runs 70 kilometers from Onomichi to Imabari, linking six islands with e…
Miyajima Island
Miyajima (宮島), formally Itsukushima Island, is a sacred island in Hiroshima Bay revered since ancient times as a dwellin…
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
Walk through Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (広島平和記念公園) on an August morning, and you'll notice the cicadas go silent at 8…
Tomonoura Port
Tomonoura (鞆の浦) is a historic fishing port on Hiroshima's southeastern coast, renowned as the inspiration for Hayao Miya…
Onomichi Temple Walk
Onomichi (尾道) is a hillside port city where 25 historic Buddhist temples cascade down the slopes overlooking the Seto In…
Mazda Museum
The Mazda Museum (マツダミュージアム) in Hiroshima's Fuchu district offers an in-depth look at Mazda Motor Corporation's history,…
JMSDF Kure Museum
The JMSDF Kure Museum (海上自衛隊呉史料館), also known as the 'てつのくじら館' (Iron Whale Museum), offers the rare opportunity to board…
Sandankyo Gorge
Sandankyo Gorge (三段峡) is a 16-kilometer river gorge carved through the Chugoku Mountains in northwestern Hiroshima, reno…
Mt. Misen
Mt. Misen (弥山, 535 meters) has been Miyajima's spiritual anchor since 806, when Kobo Daishi spent 100 days meditating in…
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (広島平和記念資料館) presents the most comprehensive and emotionally devastating documentatio…
Itsukushima Shrine
Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社) rebuilt in 1168 by Taira no Kiyomori, sits on stilts because Miyajima itself was considered to…
Yamato Museum
The Yamato Museum (大和ミュージアム), officially the Kure Maritime Museum, commemorates the city of Kure's history as Japan's pr…
Atomic Bomb Dome
The Atomic Bomb Dome (原爆ドーム, Genbaku Dome), officially the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, is the skeletal remnant of the Hiro…
Illustration — not a photographHiroshima-Style Okonomiyaki
Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki (広島風お好み焼き) is the prefecture's signature comfort food — a multi-layered savory pancake built…
Grilled Oysters (Kaki)
Hiroshima Prefecture produces over 60% of Japan's oysters (牡蠣, kaki), with the Seto Inland Sea's calm, nutrient-rich wat…
Momiji Manju
Momiji manju (もみじ饅頭, 'maple leaf manju') is Hiroshima and Miyajima's iconic confection — small, maple leaf-shaped cakes…
Fukuyama Castle
Fukuyama Castle (福山城) is a reconstructed feudal castle in central Fukuyama City, originally built in 1622 by Mizuno Kats…
Shukkei-en Garden
Shukkei-en Garden (縮景園, 'shrunken-scenery garden') is a traditional Japanese stroll garden in central Hiroshima, designe…
Hiroshima Castle
Hiroshima Castle (広島城), nicknamed 'Carp Castle' (鯉城, Rijō) for the carp that once swam in its moats, is a reconstructed…
Onomichi Ramen
Onomichi ramen (尾道ラーメン) is a distinctive local ramen style characterized by soy sauce-based broth (shoyu), flat noodles,…