From Tokyo, I took a shinkansen train all the way South to Hiroshima, the Southern-most point of my travel route through Japan’s main island Honshu. To be honest, it felt like I had to include Hiroshima in my itinerary, but I was never particularly excited about it. I thought its dark history might make it a depressing place to visit. What I didn’t expect, is to find this green, lively city next to all memorial parks and museums. The Peace Memorial Park itself is a beautiful memorial place that is larger than expected and really nice to walk around, explore and let history sink in.

I didn’t get a chance to visit the Peace Memorial Museum (which probably would have been depressing), but I got a little glimpse into eyewitness reports etc. in the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall, which is essentially a free „mini museum“ for people like me that don’t have enough time to visit the actual, large museum (I guess).

I also visited Hiroshima Castle. It was my first castle in Japan, so I really liked it – but even in hindsight it was probably my second favourite one (after Himeji). A good thing to know is that these castles are usually completely empty inside. I went inside a few during my time in Japan and there usually wasn’t really anything to see – unlike castles in Europe.

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at a restaurant that I had found on Google Maps that was supposed to offer vegetarian okonomiyaki. There are different versions of this Japanese dish across the country and the Hiroshima ones are apparently famous and special, so I had to try them! Essentially, it’s a dish that is fried a put together in layers consisting of vegetables, noodles, eggs, sauces (and if you eat meat, there will be some bacon, fish powder etc.). It doesn’t look that pretty once it is assembled, but it tastes delicious and I was happy to be able to try a veggie version of it!

On my second day, I went on a day trip to Miyajima Island, an island that is known for its red torii gate which is located in the ocean. Good to check tides for your visit to make sure there is some water when you visit for the pretty reflections! It’s an easy day trip from Hiroshima, accessible by tram and ferry.

When I arrived, I of course first checked out the torii gate and took lots of photos from different angles, and of course went to visit the temples and shrines surrounding it.

Then, I started my hike up to the summit of Mt. Misen, the island’s peak. On the way, I came across Daishoin temple, which was super pretty surrounded by nature, little sculptures and lots to take in. I spent much more time exploring it than I had thought I would.

At one point, I pushed on though, as I still wanted to make it to the summit and all the way back down the mountain of course… The trail itself was easy to find and well-maintained as usually in Japan. Views from the top were nice and I liked seeing some more of Japan’s nature!

Next day, I had originally wanted to cycle the Shimanami Kaido – a 60km cycling route that connects Honshu to Shikoku island, passing across multiple islands along the way. I was really disappointed when I found out that it takes long to get to the start and end point of the route on public transport and because of my meeting schedule (working while travelling, hey!), I could not make it work time-wise. Something for next time, I guess!

Instead, I opted to visit Himeji as a day trip, which I had originally wanted to see as a stopover along the way to Osaka the day after. It’s always good to leave some flexibility in your travel plans to re-shuffle things a bit when needed. Luckily, trains are fast in Japan, so even though Himeji doesn’t „really“ make sense as a day trip from Hiroshima, I made it work without wasting too much time. Himeji is a bright white castle, probably the most famous one to visit in Japan. It is especially popular during cherry blossom season – and luckily, there were still some of the precious blossoms left, even if not that many.

I really liked Himeji and walked around the castle grounds for a while. Again, I visited the inside as well and again, there wasn’t really much to see other than empty hallways. I also visited Kokoen Garden next to the castle, as I had some time left before returning to Hiroshima. Overall, Himeji is pretty, but could definitely be a (very) quick stop along the route and you could even just reduce it to walking around the castle’s main viewpoints, as these are beautiful but there isn’t much more to it.