Things to do in Hiroshima

Landmark · Naka ward, on the Motoyasu river

The park laid out across the hypocentre district, with the skeletal Hall for Industrial Promotion left standing as it was and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1996.

Local tip: Go to the Peace Memorial Museum before the park, not after — the park reads differently once you have been through it. The museum is deliberately unsparing and takes two hours. On 6 August the ceremony begins at 8:15 and the park is full from dawn; if you would rather not be part of a crowd, the days either side are quiet and the lanterns on the river the evening of the 6th are the part residents actually attend.

Nature · Hatsukaichi, ~40 minutes by tram or JR plus ferry

An island of wooded peaks and a shrine built out over the water, its torii standing in the sea at high tide. Inscribed as World Heritage in 1996.

Local tip: Everyone photographs the torii and leaves. The island is better up: the Mount Misen ropeway plus a half-hour climb gets you the whole Inland Sea, and the last hour before the final ferry is when the day-trippers have gone and the deer have the streets. A small visitor tax is collected with the ferry fare.

Food · Naka ward, Shintenchi

A building of stacked floors, each lined with okonomiyaki counters, every one of them cooking the layered Hiroshima version on a shared steel plate.

Local tip: It is touristy and still worth it, but the better move is any single-counter shop in Nagarekawa or near Yokogawa station. Sit at the teppan, not a table — the cook slides it straight onto the plate in front of you and you eat off the hot metal with a small spatula rather than chopsticks.

Nature · Naka ward, beside the Kyōbashi river

A compressed-landscape garden laid out in 1620 for the Asano lords, with a pond, tea houses and a rainbow bridge, rebuilt after 1945.

Local tip: Small enough for forty minutes and central enough to be a lunch break. It is also a memorial site — many people sheltered here after the bombing and the ginkgo trees that survived are marked. The combined ticket with the Prefectural Art Museum next door is the sensible buy.

Nature · Minami ward, above the city

A wooded hill in the middle of the city carrying the Museum of Contemporary Art, a cherry-blossom slope and the Radiation Effects Research Foundation's distinctive buildings.

Local tip: The best free view of the delta and, in April, one of the least crowded hanami spots in the city because most people go to the castle. Walk up from Danbara; the bus route is slower than the climb.

Nature · ~90 minutes east by JR

A hillside port town of temple stairs and cats, and the start of a 70 km cycle route that crosses six islands of the Inland Sea on dedicated bridge lanes.

Local tip: The full crossing to Imabari is a long day; the honest local version is renting in Onomichi, riding to Ikuchijima for lemon gelato and coming back on the ferry. Bikes can be dropped at terminals along the route rather than returned, which is what makes a one-way ride practical.