Hiroshima

Hiroshima is famous for what happened there in World War II, but today Hiroshima is a modern city. Getting ThereHiroshima Airport (HIJ) connects to domestic destinations in Japan as well as Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul and Taipei. By train Hiroshima is a major station on the San’yo Shinkansen line to Osaka (90 minutes) and Fukuoka. Cheaper but slower local services radiate out to other cities in the region. By bus Night buses from Tokyo take 12 hours and cost around ¥12,000, making this the cheapest (but not the most comfortable) way of getting here. Get aroundBy tram Hiroshima is the last major city in Japan with an extensive tram network known as Hiroden, an excellent way of getting around. Most trams converge on JR Hiroshima Station. Trips within the city are a flat ¥150, while trundling out all the way to Miyajima will set you back ¥270. By metro The modern if strangely named Astram links western Hiroshima to its northern suburbs, but is unlikely to be of use for most visitors. SeeAtomic bombing The following memorials related to the bombing are all clustered in or near Peace Memorial Park (Heiwa-koen), reachable by tram line 2 or 6 to Genbaku Domu-mae. The A-Bomb Dome (Genbaku Domu) is Hiroshima’s best-known symbol. Formerly the Prefectural Industrial Promotional Hall, the building was only meters away from ground zero and its skeletal remains were among the very few buildings left standing. The heart-wrenching Peace Memorial Museum (Heiwa Kinen Shiryokan) documents the bomb and its aftermath, complete with scale models of “before” and “after”, melted children’s tricycles and a harrowing recreation of a post-blast Hiroshima street. After numerous complaints, the museum now even describes the events leading up to the bomb in some detail. Entry costs a token ¥50. Be warned: a visit here, while by all means worthwhile, will ruin your day. The Statue of the A-Bomb Children is perennially draped in thousands and thousands of origami paper cranes, folded by schoolchildren across Japan in commemoration of bomb victim Sadako. Dying of leukemia in 1954, she was told an old folk tale according to which anybody who folds over 1000 cranes will have her wish come true; she managed 642 before her death in 1955 at the age of twelve. Gardens and castles Bridges in Shukkeien Shukkeien (縮景園), while not officially one of Japan’s Top 3, is a compact and beautifully landscaped Japanese garden well worth a visit. Despite the occasional high-rise peeping over the trees, it feels like an entirely different world, little paths crossing ponds on bridges and winding their way around graceful teahouses and waterfalls. Open daily 9 AM to 6 PM, entry ¥250. Get there on tram line 9, stop Shukkeien-mae. (Article from/based on Wikitravel article and may be copied freely) |