The Perfect Day Trip Itinerary to Hiroshima, Japan

If you asked me before our trip, this blog would be a day trip to Hiroshima and Osaka, but things did not turn out as planned. If that’s not the biggest travel lesson I don’t know what is. If I were to do it again I’d do Hiroshima and Miyajima. I found a blog on Pinterest that shows you how to knock out both. Keep reading to learn why we ended up skipping the Osaka leg of our trip.

Half-Day Itinerary for Hiroshima

From Kyoto, both Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen take you directly to Hiroshima station in about an hour and a half from Kyoto. After grabbing an insane amount of food at 7 Eleven in the train station and devouring it on the train, I was ready to whip out my umbrella and see some sites. Our luck, we got off the train to another rainy day, so we braved the elements to see some history.

We utilized the Hiroshima Sightseeing Hop On Hop Off Loop Bus called Meipuru-Pu, which was free for JR pass holders. I pre-scoped the lines and time tables to confirm we would want to take a yellow line to see Hiroshima Castle, The Atomic Bomb Dome, and the Children’s Peace Monument (we ended up skipping this one). After the Atomic Bomb site, we mistakingly got on the wrong bus and had to walk further to lunch and ultimately Uber back to the train station.

If we had stayed on our beloved yellow lemon line we would have hopped off at the Namiki-dori stop for lunch to go to Okonomimura for okonomiyaki. This place is a huge multi-level eatery with tiny stalls of places making famous pancakes. And no, these aren’t the same pancakes you imagine from home with syrup and fruit. Check out my vlog for a visual of this delicious experience. We all agreed this was one of our favorite meals of the trip.

After lunch we planned to take the train to Osaka for dinner. I had the following on my itinerary for Osaka: Visit Dotonburi Market (a food lover’s paradise), another Hidden Alley called Hozenji Yokocho [1 Namba, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, 542-0076], dinner at Robatayaki Mizukakechaya, and drinks after at Bar Kawana.

We arrived in Osaka to flood warnings and it raining sideways, so we made the decision to get on a different train back to our hotel in Kyoto. I was super bummed, but at the end of the day venturing around a new city in the rain didn’t sound too appealing. We landed at the hotel restaurant for dinner and it was honestly just what we needed.

Click here to watch my Hiroshima vlog.