Hiroshima rewards more time than most visitors give it. A single day covers the Peace Memorial but leaves no room for Miyajima's depth, the city's remarkable food culture, or the quieter sites that make Hiroshima one of Japan's most emotionally resonant destinations.
Day 1: The Peace Memorial and City
Morning — Peace Memorial Museum (2.5 hours): Allow more time than you think you need. The museum's renovation (completed 2019) created a deeply affecting experience — the personal testimonies, recovered objects, and historical documentation require genuine engagement. Arrive when it opens at 8:30am. The Peace Memorial Park, the A-Bomb Dome (Genbaku Dome), and the Cenotaph are in the immediate vicinity.
Take a quiet hour in the park before lunch. The Children's Peace Monument and the thousand paper cranes dedicated to Sadako Sasaki provide a different emotional register from the museum's documentation. The park is most moving in early morning before large groups arrive.
Afternoon — Hiroshima Castle and Shukkeien Garden: Hiroshima Castle (¥370) is a postwar reconstruction but contains an excellent feudal history museum. The adjacent Shukkeien Garden (¥260) — a miniature landscape garden built in 1620 — is one of Hiroshima's most beautiful spaces. The garden's stream-and-island composition survived the atomic bombing with surprising completeness.
Evening — Okonomimura: Hiroshima's okonomiyaki (savory pancake) style differs from Osaka's: layers of cabbage, noodles, and egg are stacked rather than mixed. Okonomimura ("Okonomiyaki Village") is a multi-floor building with 25 stalls each specializing in slight variations. Dinner here is both delicious and chaotic. Budget ¥1,200–1,800 per person.
Day 2: Miyajima Island
Morning — Early ferry and tide timing: Take the JR ferry from Miyajimaguchi (covered by JR Pass, ¥180 each way). Miyajima's famous torii gate of Itsukushima Shrine appears to float at high tide and rises from exposed tidal flats at low tide. Check the tide table in advance — both views are beautiful but the floating effect is the iconic image. Itsukushima Shrine (¥300) is a UNESCO Heritage site built over tidal water; the combination of brilliant vermillion lacquer and the sea is unique in Japan.
Afternoon — Daisho-in Temple and Mt. Misen: Daisho-in, a working Shingon Buddhist temple complex at the island's base, is dramatically undervisited relative to Itsukushima Shrine. Its stone steps lined with five hundred Rakan statues (each wearing hand-knitted caps left by visitors) are one of Japan's most quietly affecting sights. For the energetic: Mt. Misen (530m) offers panoramic Seto Inland Sea views; take the ropeway (¥2,000 return) to the upper station and hike 30 minutes to the summit.
Specialty food: Miyajima's maple leaf (momiji) shaped cakes are the island's signature snack — try them fresh from street stalls (not packaged versions). The island also has excellent oysters (Hiroshima is Japan's largest oyster producer) — grilled on the shell at market stalls, ¥300–500 each.