It was time to reach our last destination in Japan.:Hiroshima. She was quite curious to be here. Although we would only be there for 1 day (since the second would be spent visiting the island in front of this city, Miyajima), I knew that we could make good use of it. What to do in Hiroshima and Miyajima with little time? Here I tell you!
Accommodation in Hiroshima
As I already mentioned, on this trip I only used Airbnb to stay in Japan. It was the cheapest option I found and quite good. In the case of Hiroshima, there were 2 different accommodations that we used. One in the most central part and another closer to the crossing to Miyajima.
IF YOU REGISTER THROUGH THIS IMAGE (CLICK), THEY WILL GIVE YOU A DISCOUNT TO USE ON YOUR FIRST RESERVATION!
Capsule Hostel.
I was excited to arrive at this hostel because it was my first experience in a CAPSULE HOSTEL ! I had heard a lot about this type of accommodation.
At first they were created so that office people who worked late in the center and lived far away could stay the night there. Others also use it to take naps. But today it is also quite an experience. And in my case it was VERY SATISFACTORY.
I was afraid of feeling trapped, but it was the opposite. I loved it because unlike a cabin, for example, if the one above/below moves, you don’t feel it here, since they are separate boards. On the other hand, the space inside was quite large to be able to sit, and it also had some shelves and its own plug, which made you feel like you were in your own private room (even though there were 3 other people in the same place).
Second Hostel
Since we saw what we saw in Miyajima, and staying there was much more expensive, I strategically looked for a hostel that was close to the port where you have to take the boat to cross to the island. It was a hostel with normal cabins and quite spacious and with good mod cons.
From here, it would be much easier to then cross to Miyajima and make better use of the time we would have there.
What to do in Hiroshima and Miyajima?
Hiroshima is pure history. In 1945, during World War II, an atomic bomb fell on the city, leaving about 80,000 people dead. And standing on a stage like that, 70 years later, was heavy.
Below I tell you how we distributed our days and what we did.
Night 1: We arrive in Hiroshima late in the afternoon
From Osaka Station, we went to Shin-Osaka Station and there we took the bus again. bullet train. This trip lasted approximately 1 hour and a half and from there we walked to our Hostel that we also got through Airbnb and it was about a 20 minute walk away.
An anecdote
Anecdote that made me love the Japanese more haha.
While we were looking for the hostel, the GPS took us to another place (as happens several times). We didn’t know what to do or where to go, when suddenly I found some kind of pharmacy (or I’m not sure what it was) and in English I tried to explain to a girl that we were lost. She looked at me with a look of not understanding ANYTHING, however, she left her workplace, took my cell phone and took us walking 2 blocks to where the place was. Just totally grateful for her =)
Walking around Hiroshima (Day 1):
Hiroshima Castle.
We did all this walking because the distances were not extreme.
The first thing was to go to the “Hiroshima Castle” whose entry cost was 400 yen. The place was huge and very beautiful to visit. We spent quite some time walking around.
Hiroshima Castle was built in 1590, but after the Atomic Bomb, it was destroyed and rebuilt in 1958 where today it is a Museum dedicated to its history prior to World War II.
Memorial Peace.
From the castle we walked to Memorial Peace and uff, how strong it is to be there. An immense park with intact remains of structures that show how some places were left.
Each space has signage and memorials that explain what was in that place. Walking through the park is incredible. You manage to feel empathy with the people of that time and a lot of nostalgia. The hardest part was then going down to an underground museum where there is a list of ALL the people who died at the time, as well as others who died some time later due to problems that arose with the radiation that was left in the place. I remember that I sat for a long time watching a video where they were telling one by one the story of different people who died there. That shocked me and filled me with sadness. It’s super strong.
Children’s Memorial.
Then we went up and continued walking until we found ourselves surrounded by children right in the Children’s Memorial which is full of colors and works of children of this time who are going to leave their gift of hope to the place. It was incredible to be there and begin to feel those little voices singing a Hiroshima anthem. It was beautiful!
At the end of my video that summarizes my trip through Japan you can find part of this song. You can see the video HERE .
Miyajima and more bambis (Day 2)
When I was researching what things to do in Japan, I came across this little island about which I knew absolutely nothing, but in the photos it looked beautiful and they highly recommended crossing and spending the day there. The truth is it was much bigger than I thought and I would have liked to stay longer, but we enjoyed what we could, we walked through several temples, followed many “bambis” and took several photos at the famous Tori.
The Island is truly called Itsukushimabut it is better known as Miyajima, which means “sanctuary island”, which refers to the famous Itsukushima Shrine and even the Great Torii is considered by the Japanese to be among the 3 most beautiful landscapes in the country.
The Great Torii and Itsukushima Shrine
The Great Torii of the Island is famous for a peculiarity that it has: in the morning there is water that gives the effect that the Torii is floating, but at dusk, the water level drops and it is possible to walk to the Tori itself, which We had to do something because since we had to return, it was already too late to take the ferry. But well, we saw people starting to walk towards the place and taking photos right there. In my case, it will be for a next time.
We did not enter the Sanctuary either. The truth is that we didn’t think the Island would be so big so we were against time traveling from there to here, and after seeing so many temples in Kyoto, it wasn’t a priority to enter (they charged).
Daisho-in Temple
I loved this Buddhist temple. It had many curiosities and secret pasts that meant you could spend a good amount of time exploring there. I think it is where I saw the most Buddha statues in all their shapes and sizes.
Getting lost walking around the Island
The truth is that when planning to go to the island I did not look for everything that could be done, so what we did, based on the little available time we had on the Island, was walk and get lost there. So we began to find some temples and have some incredible views of the place.
Views and the 5-story Pagoda
After getting lost on several sides of the Island, I found this view of the Pagoda that we had walked past before and which looked very beautiful from above.
Okonomiyaki from Miyajima
We were also able to try our latest Okonomiyaki They highly recommended us to try it in Miyajima, and it was actually pretty good.
Time to go back (Day 3)
The trip was beginning to end and it was time to return to Tokyo to enjoy our last night in Japan… And what a night!!
This was the longest stretch we did on the Bullet Train: approximately 4 and a half hours. We arrived at the Station around 7pm, and our Chilean friend was drinking with friends at a place in the center of Tokyo so we couldn’t go and leave our bag at his house. For this reason, we left our bags in some lockers at the station, and we went to drink with them.
We walked through many bars, where one of them was a private Karaoke room for us, where we could also dress up and drink unlimitedly for the time we paid for (2 hours). I won’t even tell you how we finished and what the hangover was like the next day, where EYE, we had to take a plane to go to Indonesia… Oops!