GoJapan
Menu

Destination guide

Hiroshima & Miyajima

Hiroshima is a city that rebuilt itself around a message of peace, and the day you spend there stays with you. Half an hour away, the island of Miyajima offers one of Japan's most famous views: a great red gate standing in the sea.

Facts checked October 2026

Best for
History, an island night
Days to allow
1–2
Where to stay
Hiroshima Station area, or on Miyajima
From Tokyo / Kyoto
~4 h / ~1 h 40 min by Nozomi

Hiroshima

On 6 August 1945 the world's first atomic bomb used in war destroyed most of the city. Today Hiroshima is a green, friendly, thoroughly modern place — and its memorials are some of the most important sites in Japan.

  • Peace Memorial ParkA wide park at the bomb's hypocentre, with the cenotaph, the Children's Peace Monument and its thousands of folded paper cranes. Free and always open.
  • Atomic Bomb DomeThe ruined shell of the former Industrial Promotion Hall, left standing as it was. A UNESCO World Heritage site.
  • Peace Memorial MuseumPersonal belongings, photographs and testimony of survivors. Harrowing and essential. Entry ¥200; give it at least two hours, and go early — queues build by mid-morning.
  • ShukkeienA compact landscape garden of miniature hills, bridges and teahouses.
  • Hiroshima CastleA reconstruction of the castle destroyed in 1945, in pleasant moated grounds.

Eat: Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, layered with noodles, cabbage and egg — Okonomimura is a building with dozens of counters. Local oysters are in season from October to March.

Miyajima (Itsukushima)

A sacred island of forested hills, temples and tame deer, best known for Itsukushima Shrine, built on stilts over the water, and its great torii gate.

  • The floating toriiAt high tide the gate appears to float; at low tide you can walk out to its base across the sand. Check the tide table before you go — both are worth seeing.
  • Itsukushima ShrineVermilion corridors over the sea. Entry ¥300.
  • Mt MisenTake the ropeway most of the way up, then hike to the summit for views across the Seto Inland Sea.
  • Daisho-inA temple of hundreds of small statues, prayer wheels and a cave of lanterns, on the lower slopes.
  • Omotesando shopping streetGrilled oysters, anago-meshi (conger eel on rice) and momiji manju, maple-leaf-shaped cakes.

Stay the night

Most visitors leave by late afternoon. Stay on the island and you'll have the shrine, the lit-up torii and the deer almost to yourself in the evening and early morning. A ryokan night here is a highlight of many trips.

Getting there and around

  • To Hiroshima: Nozomi from Tokyo in about 4 hours (¥19,760 reserved), or from Kyoto in about 1 h 40 min. The JR West Kansai-Hiroshima Area Pass (¥17,000 for five days) covers the trip from Osaka or Kyoto plus the Miyajima ferry.
  • Around Hiroshima: trams run from the station to the Peace Park in about 20 minutes; there's also a loop bus.
  • To Miyajima: JR train to Miyajimaguchi (about 30 minutes), then the 10-minute ferry. The JR ferry (¥180) is covered by the Japan Rail Pass and the JR West pass. Direct boats also run from the Peace Park.
  • Miyajima visitor tax: ¥100 per visit, added to the ferry fare (rail-pass holders pay it separately at the pier).

Hiroshima Prefecture has charged an accommodation tax of ¥200 per person per night on rooms from ¥6,000 since April 2026.

Sources