Name: 6 Days in & around Hiroshima
Uploaded: 2026-03-30T17:35:25.000Z
Duration: 26 min 18 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

So most tourists think of Hiroshima as just a side trip,

but this week we're going to show you how to make the most of the area with Hiroshima as our base for a whole 7 days.

and although I'm going to be jumping around the region, I'll come back to the same hotel every night except for one, where I'll go to the lovely land of the floating torii in Miyajima.

but I love how easy it is to just, like, find a locker and put your stuff away first.

Stefan and Raina keep talking about this area,

and to be fair, it is pretty exciting because it's new and the trams come straight into the second floor.

If you're visiting Hiroshima for the first time, it's definitely a must-do to visit the Peace Museum and the Peace Park.

I know this feels like a bit of a somber start,

but honestly the main message from here is peace, so I feel like I just really appreciate things more afterwards.

It's not as well known as the dome, but this is the Children's Peace Monument,

and I really love how everyone has come together to make all of the cranes.

I mean, every single one of those is a hand-folded crane, like, isn't that crazy?

I love that it's a park as well because then you can kind of let everything process as you walk it off.

Once you've had a chance to walk around, on the first day I find the easiest place to spend the evening is actually at the station, which we can get back to on the cute trams.

Raina was really excited about the station renovation, so she kind of made me excited too,

and part of that renovation is Minamoa, which is like a shopping area, so shall we take a look?

Stations are like a surprisingly good place to find souvenirs because you can get something specific to that region that you can't get anywhere else,

and it's just like kind of impressive to people back home.

I love Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, which is this style with the noodles in it.

And last time I was here I was by myself,

but this time I am with Eiri, so that means we get to try two different types, yay!

So glad the hotel is literally above the station so we don't have to go far.

This is my hotel for 5 out of the 6 nights so that I can focus on travel instead of on packing.

We're getting a lot of transport on this trip,

but I'm particularly excited for this one because this train is fancy!

I like getting longer sightseeing trains like this because it means I can enjoy the view and have some snacks and have a bit of a rest before I start exploring.

Okay, so once we get to Onomichi, then we're going to walk up here and then get on the ropeway,

and then once we've gone to the observatory we'll just have a little look around.

左手横の尾道水道の停車を。尾道水道が寒いです。 I love spots like these where you can see the whole region down below.

I definitely recommend coming up to the observation deck if you visit Senkōji.

Onomichi is known for the starting point of the Shimanami Kaidō cycling route,

but it's also a lovely town to spend some time in on its own, especially because of the hilly temple walk that winds through a crazy 25 temples if you do the full 2.5 km.

But the easiest and most picturesque is Senkōji Temple, with the history of its main hall going back to the 1600s.

Senkōji Temple has a lot of history behind it,

and you know that it's an important one where there's also a folktale,

and the tale here is about Tamano-iba, which is the jewel rock which supposedly lit up the sky in the dark like a guiding light.

This path actually connects 25 different temples,

but for me it's enough to just wander around the winding streets and take in the atmosphere a bit,

and this isn't quite on the pathway back to the station,

but I wanted to just make a quick stop at Cat Alley, which is decorated with catstone paintings.

I also like wandering down the different streets because you can stumble upon some very cute local cafés, so I decided to have a little break at Air Café before heading back to the station.

Nothing like a brisk ferry ride to wake you up in the morning.

It is kind of nice that you can get to Matsuyama from Hiroshima so easily via the ferry,

but if you like onsen, I do think it would be quite nice to stay overnight.

Overnight or not, though, if you're making this trip it's definitely worth considering the Setoichi area pass, because this trip alone is almost the same price as the pass.

Then you'd still have several more days to explore the region because it's a 7-day pass with unlimited travel on trains and buses in the Setoichi area.

From the ferry terminal, you'll need to walk about 15 minutes to the station, then grab the train to Ōtemachi Station.

From there you can either walk or catch a tram to Ōkaidō Station, which is close to the cable cars up to the castle.

And now we're going to Matsuyama Castle, which is right there.

Not going to lie, that does look pretty good for defence.

Matsuyama Castle was constructed in the 1600s, but—and this is something that unfortunately happened to a lot of Japanese castles—it didn't survive a natural disaster of a fire caused by a lightning strike when it was five stories high, so a new, three-storied one was built in 1820.

And this is one of the few castles in Japan—12, in fact—whose main keeps have remained intact since the end of that feudal era, making it quite special.

It's nice because at so many Japanese castles there's just one main keep to explore,

I'm excited for this one because it's supposedly part of the inspiration for Spirited Away,

and I thought this would be a good time to explain the Japanese word "onsen" because it's used very broadly and it means hot spring,

but it can mean everything from the hot spring pools to the shared bars to a hot spring town.

So in this case, Dogo Onsen means the entire hot spring town.

It would be a little weird for you to actually follow me into the bath, so I'm just going to show you around some other areas of it.

Ugh, I don't want to leave, I just want to sleep here, I'm so relaxed.

But it will be easier to get to our spot tomorrow from Hiroshima, so I guess we better go.

As if I haven't been treating myself enough already with all this travel, I'm also treating myself to wine and snacks too!

After the morning train to Talannoumi, it's off to Rabbit Island.

Last time I visited, Amy didn't get to go, so how do you feel about visiting an island of rabbits, Amy?

I love any place with animals, so I'm really excited!

This island is a bit of an interesting one because it's full of cute cuddly bunnies,

The dark history is that it was once an island for chemical weapons manufacturing to the point that it was even erased from maps to keep it secret.

You'd think the rabbits would have something to do with that,

but actually the leading theory is just that someone released a bunch of rabbits and they bred like, well, rabbits.

Before heading back to Hiroshima, I just wanted to make a stop at Takehada because it's such a nice and atmospheric town.

This is just such a nice place to walk around.

The town's name means bamboo plain, so the last time I was here I actually made a bamboo basket and stayed overnight.

It's so nice to come back and walk through this peaceful town.

I'm just going to grab some food before we head back to Hiroshima.

There are some cute restaurants in Takehara, so if you feel like you've had enough of Hiroshima Okonomiyaki—if that's even possible—then you can have something else here like I'm doing.

I'm looking forward to a more chill day today and then sleeping on Miyajima Island,

but today we're starting with Kintokyo Bridge, which is right here.

Iwakuni needed a bridge to connect the castle and lord's residence with the castle town,

but whatever they made was destroyed by floods.

Inspired by paintings he saw of an arched bridge in China, the feudal lord of Iwakuni ordered for this arched bridge to be made.

To maintain its strength, the bridge is often renovated or partially rebuilt using the original blueprints from its completion in 1673.

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6 Days in & around Hiroshima

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