Hiroshima: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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At 8.15 on the morning of 6 August 1945 an American bomber dropped the first atomic bomb used in war on Hiroshima. It exploded about six hundred metres above the city centre, and by the end of the year some hundred and forty thousand people had died. The riverside district beneath it became the Peace Memorial Park. Half a day; this is a place of mourning, so keep voices low.

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A short history of Hiroshima

Hiroshima was founded in 1589 by the daimyo Mōri Terumoto, who built a castle at the mouth of the river, and the city later grew into a military and industrial base. On 6 August 1945 the first atomic bomb used in war was dropped on it, and by the end of that year about 140,000 people had died from it. Almost the entire city was wiped out. The shell of the Industrial Promotion Hall, the "Atomic Bomb Dome", was left standing near the point above which the bomb exploded, and in 1996 it was declared a World Heritage Site. The city was rebuilt, and in 2023 it hosted the G7 summit.

The ten best sights in Hiroshima

1
Atomic Bomb Dome
The ruin left as it stood
2
Aioi Bridge
The T-shaped bridge, the bomb’s aiming point
3
Hypocentre
Above Shima Hospital, a plaque marks the spot
4
Children’s Peace Monument
Sadako and the paper cranes
5
Flame of Peace
To burn until nuclear weapons are gone
6
Cenotaph
The arch framing the dome
7
Peace Memorial Hall
The names and faces of the dead
8
Peace Memorial Museum
Allow two hours; arrive early
9
Orizuru Tower
A rooftop view and a wall of paper cranes
10
Hiroshima Castle
The keep rebuilt after the bomb

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Tours in Hiroshima →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Hiroshima:

Free walking tours in Hiroshima

The Peace Park

Atomic Bomb Dome · The industrial exhibition hall designed by the Czech architect Jan Letzel and opened in 1915. It stood almost directly beneath the explosion, and because the blast came from above, its walls and the frame of its dome survived. It was left as a ruin and became a World Heritage site in 1996.
Aioi Bridge · A T-shaped bridge where two rivers divide, chosen as the aiming point because it was easy to recognise from the air. The bomb drifted and exploded about three hundred metres to the south-east, over Shima Hospital.
Children’s Peace Monument · Sadako Sasaki was two when the bomb fell and died of leukaemia in 1955, aged twelve, after folding paper cranes in hospital in the hope of recovery. Her classmates raised money for this monument, and paper cranes are sent to it from all over the world, millions every year.
Flame of Peace · A flame lit in 1964 that is to burn until the last nuclear weapon on earth is destroyed. Part of its fire was brought from the flame of a temple on Mount Misen on Miyajima, said to have burned for some twelve hundred years.
Cenotaph · A saddle-shaped arch covering a stone chest with the names of all the known victims, still added to each year. From it, the flame and the dome line up in one view, as the architect Kenzo Tange planned. Its inscription reads: let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil.
Peace Memorial Museum · The museum tells the day through the belongings of the dead: a child’s burned tricycle, a stopped watch at 8.15, and the stone steps of a bank on which the shadow of a person who sat there was burned into the stone.

The city that rebuilt

Within a few years the city came back to life, and today it is a city of a million people, trams and rivers. Half a day on foot and by tram, ending with okonomiyaki.

Orizuru Tower · A tower beside the dome with a wooden rooftop deck. Visitors fold a paper crane and drop it into a glass wall that is slowly filling with cranes from the top floor down.
Hiroshima Castle · Built in the 1590s by the lord Mori Terumoto, who gave the city its name. The original keep was destroyed by the bomb; the present one was rebuilt in concrete in 1958. Trees in its grounds that survived the blast are marked as hibaku trees.
Shukkeien · A landscape garden laid out in 1620 as a miniature of famous views. On the day of the bombing, survivors fled here to the water; many died on its banks. A ginkgo tree that survived the blast still grows by the pond.
Hondori · The covered shopping street, rebuilt on the line of an old road through the castle town, today the busy heart of the city.
Hijiyama Park · A hill east of the centre with Japan’s first public museum of contemporary art. On the hill stands the research foundation, set up by the Americans after the war, that has followed the health of the survivors for generations.
Okonomimura · A building of several floors of okonomiyaki counters. Hiroshima’s version, which spread from the street stalls of the postwar years, is layered rather than mixed: batter, a mound of cabbage, pork, noodles and an egg, cooked in front of you on the griddle.

Miyajima

Forty minutes from the city by train and ferry lies Miyajima, the island of shrines, sacred for so long that by tradition no one was allowed to be born or die on it. A full day; check the tide tables, as the shrine and the torii are best at high tide and the gate can be reached on foot at low tide.

Miyajima Omotesando · The shopping street from the ferry, where free-roaming deer wander and momiji manju, cakes shaped like maple leaves, are baked by machine in the shop windows. At its end stands what is said to be the world’s largest rice scoop, the island’s traditional craft.
Great Torii · The gate of the shrine standing in the sea, about sixteen metres high, of camphor wood. It is not buried in the seabed but stands by its own weight; the present gate dates from 1875.
Itsukushima Shrine · A shrine of red corridors and halls built on piers over the tidal flats, given its present form by the warlord Taira no Kiyomori in the twelfth century, so that at high tide it seems to float. It was built in the water so that the sacred island would not be touched.
Senjokaku · A huge open hall of a thousand tatami mats begun by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1587 and left unfinished at his death, so it has no front wall or ceiling boards; beside it rises a five-storey pagoda.
Daisho-in · The oldest temple on the island, at the foot of Misen, with stairs whose rails are lined with spinning prayer wheels and a path of five hundred small stone disciples of the Buddha, each with a different face.
Mount Misen · The sacred peak of the island, reached by ropeway and a short climb, with a view over the islands of the Inland Sea. In a hall near the top burns the flame lit by the monk Kobo Daishi in the ninth century, from which part of Hiroshima’s Flame of Peace was taken.

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Getting to Hiroshima and getting around

Hiroshima Station · Shinkansen; trams to the Peace Park
Miyajimaguchi · Ferries to Miyajima, ten minutes
Hiroshima Port · Ferries to the islands of the Inland Sea

Cheap eats in Hiroshima

Hiroshima eats okonomiyaki, the layered pancake of cabbage, pork, noodles and egg cooked on the griddle in front of you and eaten from it with a small spatula; oysters from the bay, grilled in the shell or fried; and on Miyajima, anago-meshi, grilled conger eel over rice, and momiji manju cakes hot from the mould. An okonomiyaki costs about eight to twelve dollars.

Okonomimura · Okonomiyaki on several floors
Miyajima Omotesando · Grilled oysters and maple cakes
Hiroshima Station · Okonomiyaki in the station building

Museums in Hiroshima

The museums of Hiroshima are first of all its memorials, but also its art and its industry.

Peace Memorial Museum · The day of the bomb
Peace Memorial Hall · The names of the dead
Mazda Museum · The assembly line

Nature and day trips near Hiroshima

A delta of six rivers facing the islands of the Inland Sea.

Mount Misen · The island summit
Shukkeien · The garden
Mitaki-dera · Waterfalls in the woods

Things to do in Hiroshima with kids

With children: deer on Miyajima, a ropeway, folding cranes and walking to a gate in the sea.

Orizuru Tower · Fold a crane
Great Torii · Walk out at low tide
Mount Misen · The ropeway

Holy places in Hiroshima

Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples on the sacred island, and the memorials of the city.

Itsukushima Shrine · The floating shrine
Daisho-in · The prayer wheels
Cenotaph · The names

Nightlife in Hiroshima

Hiroshima’s nights are the bars of Nagarekawa, baseball crowds of the Carp in season, and the lantern floating on the rivers every 6 August.

Hondori · Bars and izakaya nearby
Aioi Bridge · Lanterns on 6 August

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Frequently asked questions about Hiroshima

What is there to see in Hiroshima?

The top sights in Hiroshima are Atomic Bomb Dome, Aioi Bridge and Hypocentre. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Hiroshima?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Hiroshima without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Hiroshima?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Hiroshima, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The Peace Park.

How do you get to Hiroshima and get around?

The main ways are Hiroshima Station, Miyajimaguchi and Hiroshima Port. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Hiroshima, and for how much?

sleepntrip shows only rooms in Hiroshima that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.

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