The present-day Hiroshima is very different from the place that was almost wiped out by an atomic bomb in 1945. It’s now a prosperous and bustling city that strongly advocates for a nuclear-free world. 🕊️
This video gives you a peak into Hiroshima City, its Peace Tourism, and ideas on what you can do, see, and eat here in a day. 🥢
#hiroshimacity #hiroshimapeacememorialpark #hiroshimainaday
#whattoseeanddoinhiroshima #okonomiyaki #okonomimura #hibaku #hiroshimain24hours #biketour
🚋 Getting around Hiroshima:
☑️ Tram run by Hiroden (Hiroshima Electric Railway)
🎟️One-day streetcar pass: JPY700
🎟️One-day street car pass + roundtrip ferry
boat to Miyajima: JPY900 (not valid for JR
Ferry boat)
☑️ Hiroshima Sightseeing Loop Buses run by JR aka ‘Meipuru-pu’
🚶♂️Three (3) routes you can explore based on the walking tour guide map available at Tourist Information Centers:
☑️ Exploring Hibaku Buildings and the Legacy of Hiroshima (3 hrs)
– A-Bomb Dome
– Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum (free admission)
– Fukuro-machi Elementary School Peace Museum (free admission)
– Peace Park Rest House (free admission)
– The Former Bank of Japan Hiroshima Branch
– Hibaku Gravestome
☑️ From the Ashes: A Look at Modern Hiroshima (3 hrs)
– The Former Hiroshima Municipal Baseball Stadium
– Hondori Shopping Street (free admission)
– Hiroshima Andersen Bakery (Former Hiroshima Branch of the Imperial Bank)
– Okonomimura (okonomiyaki food-place)
– Fukuya Department Store
☑️ Lessons from the Past: An In-Depth Look at Peace Museums in Hiroshima (4 hrs)
– Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (admission: JPY200)
– Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims (free admission)
– Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum (free admission)
– Fukuro-machi Elementary School Peace Museum (free admission)
– Cenotaph for the Victims of the Atomic Bomb (free admission)
– The Children’s Peace Monument (free admission)
– The Hypocenter Marker (free admission)
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🎶MUSIC by Epidemic Sound
Juncture by Phillip Ayers
Acoustic Ornaments by Codey Randall
Love the Way by Codey Randall
Forgotten Tears by Magnus Ringblom
I Remember You by Nickolas Jones
Eternal Sunshine by Rmdyklang Soundtracks
There’s a New Day by Staffan Carlen
Hi everyone! We’re here in Hiroshima City where we’re gonna spend the next 24 hours. This city is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture located in Chugoku Region, in southern Japan. In the morning of August 6, 1945 during World War 2, at exactly 8:15AM, the US Air Force dropped an atomic bomb in this city
Killing thousands of people instantly and leaving 140,000 people dead by the end of the year, including those who died due to radiation exposure. First order of the day is to drop by the Tourist Information Center here at (JR) Hiroshima Station to grab some maps and guides, and ask about the tram schedule.
You can get around the city just by riding the trams or streetcars and Hiroshima has the biggest tram network in the country. A single ride on the inner city lines costs JPY 220 and you can pay cash or use your Suica or Pasmo card. Hiroshima Electric Railway which runs the tram offers a one-day streetcar pass for JPY700
And another pass with unlimited streetcar rides for a day plus a roundtrip ferry boat ride to Miyajma, a nearby island, for JPY900. Alternatively, you can ride the JR-run Hiroshima Sightseeing Loop Buses also known as Meipuru-pu to get to the attractions. Didn’t you know that four trams survived the atomic bomb? These are trams no. 651 652 653 and 654.
Three are still operational while one is on display at a museum. What’s really interesting here is that just a few days after the bombing, a few of the trams were already back in operation. For today’s sightseeing, we have booked a cycling tour via Viator and our meeting time is 10am,
Which is just perfect as we still have time to check in and leave our bags at the hotel. We’re staying at Capsule Hotel Cube Hiroshima which is a 7-minute tram ride from the station. We booked this on Booking.com and paid JPY13500 for three people or PHP1679 per person.
The tour’s meeting place is at a cafe which is a 12-minute walk from the hotel When you book a bike tour on Viator, you need to write down your height so they can get a bike that fits you. Unfortunately, the seat of the bike that my friend got couldn’t be adjusted
And it was too high for her; so she couldn’t join us at every point of the tour and just met us at the Peace Park. Viator was quick to refund her booking though. The cost of the tour is USD69 or PHP3500 per person. It’s slightly over our budget but it’s worth it.
You will learn a lot in just three hours which is perfect if you have limited time. Biking around Hiroshima is not at all scary. We mostly passed through the inner streets and as in every corner of Japan, everyone follows traffic rules. Our first stop is at the Fukuro-machi Elementary School Peace Museum
Which is one of the hibaku buildings in the city or buildings that survived the atomic bombing. Located just 460 meters from the hypocenter, the school was badly damaged and only the outer walls of the west building were left. All the students who were at the school when the bomb was dropped instantly died.
And in year 2000, messages on the walls written by people who sought refuge in this place were discovered. Visitors are given these tiny paper crane origami as souvenirs. Unfortunately , I forgot to take photos while in the museum. We briefly stopped at the former Bank of Japan branch here in Hiroshima,
Located just 380 meters from the hypocenter. Lindsey (tour guide) said there were 20 staff working here on the day of the bombing and all of them were killed. But just two days after the bombing, this branch reopened for cash withdrawals and served as a temporary area for other financial institutions whose offices were damaged.
We’re headed towards the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park which is home to various museums and monuments dedicated to the victims of the atomic bomb and is a place to learn about the cruelty and realities of nuclear warfare, and how important it is to eliminate nuclear weapons and protect peace. This is the Peace Watch Tower,
Which is inside the Peace Memorial Museum. Apart from the usual clock, you will see two digital clocks the upper one shows the number of days since Hiroshima was bombed and the lower one shows the number of days since the last nuclear test was done. The bike tour doesn’t include entrance and a tour
Inside the Peace Memorial Museum so we will need to go back here after the bike tour is over. This arch is the Cenotaph for the Victims of the Atomic Bomb which was built in 1952. Underneath it is a stone that serves as a registry for those who died during and after the bombing.
Engraved on it are the lines, “Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil.” This is the Children’s Peace Monument which was built to remember children who died from the bombing, particularly Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who contracted leukemia after getting exposed to radiation and died ten years after.
Around it are colorful exhibits of paper cranes. In Japan, they say that if you fold a thousand paper cranes, your wish will come true. Sadako did this when she was sick, with hopes to someday recover from her illness. This is the former Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall and today, it’s called the A-Bomb Dome
Or Genbaku Dome, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Genbaku in Japanese means atomic bomb. With a distance of just 160 meters away from the hypocenter, this building was severely damaged and the heat melted the copper that covered the dome. This is the only structure left standing near the hypocenter after the blast,
And how it looks now is exactly how it looked like right after the bombing. The atomic bomb detonated 600 meters above the city, creating a massive ball of fire followed by a gigantic mushroom cloud that arose from the ground. The city was instantly covered in a vast blinding white flash of light
And the blazing heat around the hypocenter reached 4,000 degrees Celcius, enough to melt bronze and burn the skin of a person located 3.5 kilometers away from this area. Just a 2-3 minute walk from the A-Bomb Dome is the hypocenter marker. Now, it’s time to explore other points of interest in the city.
This shrine is located within the compound of Hiroshima Castle. It’s originally located near the Peace Park but was destroyed by the atomic bomb. It’s now the largest Shinto shrine in Hiroshima City. The now Hiroshima Castle was built eight years after the atomic bomb destroyed the original castle.
It’s been converted to a museum that tells about the city’s history before the bombing. This beautifully Japanese garden is a famous sightseeing spot here, visited by around 250, 000 people per year. It was built in 1620 as a garden for the villa of Lord Asano Nagaakira, who was then the daimyo in Hiroshima.
Shukkeien Garden is the last in our tour itinerary so let’s return the bike and go back to the Peace Memorial Museum. The Peace Memorial Museum accounts what exactly happened on the day of the bombing and where you will really get a grasp of the horrors of that day.
I have to warn you that the images you will see and the stories you will read here are not meant for the faint-hearted. They’re about people who died on the spot from the bombing or who were severely injured and burned, people who were displaced and lost loved ones, and many others.
You will also see exhibits of the victims’ personal belongings, watch video testimonies of some survivors, and learn other topics related to atomic bomb and peace preservation. This is the 577 meter-long Hiroshima Hondori Shopping Street which attracts an average of 100,000 people every day.
The west end of the street is very close to the A-Bomb Dome. Hiroshima is known for okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake with a variety of ingredients. It literally means ‘grill as you like’ and there are two best variants of this dish in Japan – the Osaka version and the Hiroshima version.
In Osaka, it’s cooked as a single lump of batter while here in Hiroshima, the ingredients are cooked in layers and usually come with shredded cabbages and noodles. We’re here at Okonomimura which means ‘Okonomiyaki Village’, a very popular okonomiyaki-themed food place. It’s 4-storey building full of okonomiyaki stalls. We found a space at Ron Okonomiyaki,
A stall located at the 4F. We haven’t had a decent meal since arriving in Hiroshima so we decided to spend a little more here. We ordered three okonomiyaki, 2 servings of potato salad, and 3 drinks. Our total bill is JPY6810 or PHP850 per person. This is not bad considering the amount of food we ate.
We’re back at the hotel and while we’re here, let me give you a tour. This is one of the most quiet and cleanest capsule hotels I’ve ever stayed at. We booked the moderate cabin which has more vertical space that I could even stand inside it. There’s a small TV, a headphone,
Controls for the AC and light, and an alarm clock. Underneath is a storage for your belongings which can be locked. They also provide a shoe tray and this mesh bag which comes with a pair of slippers, towels, pajamas, and toiletries. Let’s go check the vanity area and the toilet.
Everything here is just clean and in order, and the toilet is spotless as well. This is the shower area which comes with a separate changing area. The cubicle has built-in shower bench and comes with a complete set of toiletries. Since the night is still young, we decided to take a stroll outside
And get a feel of how Hiroshima is like at nighttime. We discovered this place called Nagarekawa which is like an area of tiny streets with lots of bars and restaurants. I’ve read that this place is Hiroshima’s version of Osaka’s Dotonbori We’re back in the tram and now headed to the train station.
If I were to change anything in this trip, I would stay here for at least 3 days and 2 nights and allot a day and a half to feel the history some more and learn as much as I can about what happened on August 6, 1945. I would also visit the nearby island Miyajima,
Which is famous for its giant torii gate and oysters. It did not take too long for Hiroshima to recover even if a part of it was devastated by a strong typhoon just a month after the bombing. When you look at present Hiroshima City, you wouldn’t think that this this place was almost burned down
78* years ago. A pamphlet I got from the Tourist Information Center beautifully describes it as a “proverbial phoenix from the ashes.”
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