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Hiroshima
City in Chūgoku, Japan

Hiroshima

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan.

Plan a trip to Hiroshima→From Matsuyama

As of June 1, 2019, the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has been the city's mayor since April 2011. The Hiroshima metropolitan area is the second largest urban area in the Chugoku Region of Japan, following the Okayama metropolitan area.

Get in

Getting to Hiroshima

  1. 01
    Hiroshima Airport

    Connects from domestic destinations in Japan.

  2. 02
    Hiroshima Station
  3. 03
    Hiroshima Port Ujina Passenger Terminal
See

Worth seeing

Most of the memorials related to the atomic bomb are in and around the Peace Memorial Park (平和公園 Heiwa-kōen), reachable by tram line 2 or 6 to Genbaku Dome-mae. Coming from JR Hiroshima Station, you'll see the Peace Park on your left just before crossing the T-shaped Aioi Bridge, which is thought to have been the target of the bomb.

  1. 01
    A-Bomb Dome

    The skeletal remains of the dome are the most recognizable symbol of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima.

  2. 02
    Hypocenter

    One block east of the A-Bomb Dome (outside Shima Clinic) is a plaque which marks the exact point above which the bomb exploded.

  3. 03
    Children's Peace Monument

    Perennially draped in thousands of origami paper cranes folded by schoolchildren across Japan in the memory of the young bomb victim Sadako Sasaki (see Literature).

  4. 04
    Memorial Tower to the Mobilized Students

    Commemorates the 6,300 students who were conscripted to work in munitions factories and killed by the atomic bomb.

  5. 05
    Peace Bell
Do

Things to do

Flower Festival (フラワーフェスティバル). First weekend of May. This is Hiroshima's biggest festival, begun in 1975 to celebrate the Carp's first baseball championship. There are food vendors and things for sale, but live performances now dominate the program, with comedians and J-pop bands on stages along Heiwa-o-dori.

  1. 01
    Hiroshima Toyo Carp Baseball

    Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium, 2-3-1 Minami-Kaniya, Minami-ku (10 minute walk east from JR Hiroshima Station, or a shorter walk from the Enkobashi-cho tram stop),.

  2. 02
    Hiroshima Sanfrecce Soccer

    Big Arch Stadium, 5-1-1 Ozukanishi, Numata-cho, Asa-Minami-ku (Astram to Koiki Koen-mae),.

  3. 03
    Nekoda Kinen Gymnasium
  4. 04
    Hanbe Gardens
  5. 05
    Round One

    3-11 Tatemachi, Naka Ward, 730-0032 (A block away from mid-Hondori),.

Eat

Where to eat

Hiroshima is famous for its style of okonomiyaki (お好み焼き), which literally means "cook it as you like it". Often (and somewhat misleadingly) called "Japanese pizza", it is better described as a type of savory pancake made with egg, cabbage, soba noodles, and meat, seafood or cheese.

  1. 01
    Okonomi-mura
  2. 02
    Organ-za
  3. 03
    Otis!

    Serving Tex-Mex in Hiroshima for more than twenty years, Otis!

  4. 04
    Sankanou

    A tiny okonomi shop in a little back alley near the railroad tracks and beside Hiroshima Station.

  5. 05
    Micchan
How locals move

Getting around Hiroshima the local way

  • Get inFerries dock at which also serves as terminus for several tram lines.
  • Get inSlower ferries, which also carry motor vehicles, arrive in 2 hr 40 min at a much-reduced cost of ¥3670.
  • Get aroundA day pass which also includes travel on the Matsudai Kisen ferry to Miyajima costs ¥1000 (¥550 children).
  • Go nextMiyajima and its iconic floating torii are an easy day-trip from Hiroshima — about an hour away by tram or local train to the port of Miyajima-guchi and then a short ferry ride.
  • Go nextA longer ferry ride from Ujina could take you to Matsuyama for a day at the famed Dogo Onsen hot springs.
  • Go nextThe ferry company operating this service offers a foreigner discount of ~45% off the normal price.
  • Go nextOne way ticket price after discount from Hiroshima to Matsuyama is ¥2000 for the slow ferry and ¥3600 for fast one.

From Wikivoyage: Hiroshima, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see file page), Wikimedia Commons.