The last thing I expected to see at Hiroshima’s newly revamped railway station last November was a giant leopard appearing to jump out at me from an overhanging 3D bill board! More fearsome than the photo I took of him. With 3D, the leopard moved forward, seemingly poised to leap on me! It is incredibly realistic, and it ensured a heart stopping beginning to my return visit to Hiroshima! I don’t know if he is a fixture there – but at the time I was visiting, the leopard was the centrepiece of an advertising campaign for Hiroshima’s Professional Carp baseball team.
I presumed the leopard was the team mascot. Not so! They have got a couple, including a blue dragon. But something more was clearly needed as the team is fighting back from the longest championship drought in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), last winning the Japan series in the early 1980’s. The team was founded in 1949, emerging alongside the reconstruction of Hiroshima, largely destroyed by the world’s first atom bombing in 1945.
The baseball team is seen as “a symbol of Hiroshima’s recovery”. Its adopted name ‘carp’ refers to Hiroshima castle, nicknamed ‘carp castle’ – Koi-no-ura in Japanese – because of the surrounding area – carp sea shore. The castle – built in the late 1500’s – was largely dismantled in the Meiji era. What was left was destroyed in the atomic bombing. A temporary wooden version was built after the War, and then an improved concrete replica of the original – with a wooden facade – was opened in 1958 to house a museum of Hiroshima’s history before the WW2. The city traces its roots back to 1589.
In March this year (2026) the Castle Keep closed to the public because it fails to meet modern earthquake safety standards. The history museum inside, detailing the castle’s feudal past, is being relocated to the new Hiroshima Castle Sannomaru History Museum just south of the main gates to the castle grounds. It includes shops and restaurants.
You can still explore the expansive castle grounds where you can see a shrine, some ruins and a few reconstructed buildings of the Ninomaru (second circle of defence). Take a close look at walls within the grounds. Some still bear the blast scars from the atomic bomb. You also can still view the replica Castle Keep from the outside until a decision is made on how to rebuild it, along with solving the essential challenge of funding the project. That’s unlikely to happen any time soon!
Nagoya’s famous Castle Keep is in a similar boat – destroyed in WW2, rebuilt in concrete and no longer meeting earthquake safety standards. An accurate wooden reconstruction of the original 1600’s Keep is on the drawing board – but it’s going to take years to complete.
So where am I leading you with this tale of leopards, baseball and castles. Hopefully, to a refreshed look at this beautiful ancient city – reconstructed in the baby boomer era with wide landscaped streets. Most visitors go to Hiroshima to see the famous Atomic bomb museum in the Peace Memorial Park. But there is a lot more to this modern and pleasant city.
I first visited Hiroshima in 2002 with my two sons to see the Peace Park, its museum, and the famous Atomic dome – the skeletal ruin of the city’s former Prefectural Industrial Promotion hall. The hall was covered with scaffolding then to strengthen the building, so I was pleased on this second visit to see it without all the ironwork.
The city has changed a lot since that first visit.The recently revamped and extended Hiroshima railway station is an attraction in itself, with shops, restaurants, viewing areas and city trams coming right into the station to their own platform. The trams range from old style to ultra modern. The station feels welcoming – come see our glorious city!
Husband MJ and I boarded a tram there going to the Peace park. It looked a lot different from when I saw it in 2002 on my first visit to Hiroshima. It’s now crowded with tourists, both Japanese and International, and there is almost a theme park atmosphere, at odds with the reality of what the atomic bomb – the world’s first – did to this city. Try to visit on a weekday, as weekends could be overwhelming with visitors.
We spotted a cafe just along from the famous Atomic dome for a late breakfast, and we people watched from our table for a while before exploring the Peace park. MJ also checked a map of the local area over breakfast – yes, we still do that! He’s a whizz with google maps, but there’s still something special about a real paper map before you. Outside the cafe, freshly harvested local oranges were on sale. I enjoyed a juice from them with my breakfast. Oishi!
I also took the opportunity to go to the cafe loo – well, you do, don’t you? Never miss a loo when travelling. Anyone who has visited Japan will rave on about its amazing space age toilets. I thought this one was extra special. It came with Moët French champagne! No glasses though. No bottle openers. Just a moment to sit, ponder and gaze at the Moët.
We crossed the famous 1926 Motoyasu bridge from the cafe to explore the Peace park. The bridge – 130 meters from the hypo centre – was damaged, but did not collapse, with the main pillars withstanding the atomic blast. It was restored in 1992.
We didn’t go to the Atomic bomb museum. I’d seen many of the exhibits in the original one before it was expanded – an educational, very sad and sobering experience. And as regular NHK World viewers, we’ve seen many programmes on the bombing, its aftermath and continuing effects. Expect long queues if you plan to visit and consider booking online at the Museum’s website.
This is especially important if you are visiting on Japanese holidays such as Golden week when it can be shoulder to shoulder in super packed crowds. Barely moveable! It’s become such a problem that admission during Japan’s Bon holiday period in August this year will only be possible with reservations. The museum has advised this will be necessary to ease congestion. Admissions will be capped at 1,000 people per hour from Aug 8 to 16.
Within the Peace Park we saw thousands of colourful origami paper cranes – the symbol of peace at Hiroshima – being placed at the Children’s Peace Monument – many by school groups and children. We noted that at the rear of the monument trucks were loading them up to take away for recyling. The City receives more than ten tonnes of paper cranes a year! Money raised goes to charitable projects.
We visited the Park’s ‘Rest House’, a former kimono shop used as a fuel distribution centre late in WW2. Thirty seven people died there in the bombing. Now it’s been restored, with a tourist information centre on the ground floor selling gaudy cheap souvenirs. It felt inappropriate We decided to leave and explore Hiroshima, circa 2025.
We wandered along the picturesque riverbank, along the way spotting a large group of what looked like kindergarten or pre- primary school children, on a day excursion. They’d stopped for lunch, rolling out small mats to sit on, removing their tiny shoes to sit just outside their mats, and taking out bento boxes from their bags to enjoy. They were remarkably self sufficient, only a few requiring assistance from their teachers.
Hiroshima castle was a 15 minute walk away – longer, of course, if you stop at the many attractions en route. Like the impressive Hiroshima Museum of Art, attractive shops and big shopping centres. MJ even found a mum and pop run fishing shop!
There are 20 notable galleries in Hiroshima, with around 40 to 45 cultural institutions. Very popular is the Mazda Museum at the global headquarters of Mazda. You can take factory tours and learn the history of the automotive company from its founding. A little more unusual is the Hiroshima City Ebayama Museum of Meteorology – a small interactive museum housed in a historic weather station that offers hands-on science experiments.
In a store close to the Peace Park, I came across make-up brushes that I’d seen featured in an NHK World programme years ago, but had never comeacross in my Japan travels before. The Hiroshima region is famous internationally for brush-making – and is particularly renowned in the art world. Calligraphy brushes, paint brushes and makeup brushes – of all shapes and sizes.
Probably most famous are those handmade by the century plus old Houkodou Brush Company near Hiroshima city, using natural animal fibres. Dog, cat, horse, mouse, rabbit, deer, badger, weasel, pig, wild boar and raccoon dog. No animal is harmed – they just get a haircut. The brushes are not inexpensive. I chose one of their eye shadow brushes made from squirrel hair. It is incredibly soft and the most superior makeup brush I have ever owned. My Nanna used to quip ‘a little bit of powder and a little bit of paint makes an old girl what she ain’t’ – well, at 74 I am definitely an old girl now, and that Hiroshima make-up brush is my treasure!
We finally made it to the castle, though it was still a long walk through its attractive grounds to reach the Keep. Entering the castle gates, we saw an impressive Chrysanthemum display – we’ve found that many Japanese castles have similar exhibitions in the autumn.
Most surprising was to see to a massive old gum tree that survived the atomic blast, just 740 metres from the hypo centre. It is a Eucalyptus melliodora, commonly known as yellow box, honey box or yellow ironbox – a species of medium-sized to occasionally tall tree endemic to south-eastern, continental Australia. Apparently it was transplanted to the castle’s Ninomaru (second compound area in the castle grounds) in the early 1900’s. Why was an Aussie gum tree there in the first place? I haven’t been able to find out. All I have been able to discover is that it was transplanted there in the early 1900’s. If anyone knows anymore I’d love to hear the story.
As we tour around Japan, we note ancient links between places we visit. In November, we also toured the historic 1600 Sekigahara samurai Battlefield, near Nagoya. Famously, feudal Lord Kikkawa Hiroie figured he’d chosen the wrong side for victory, and secretly switched sides the night before the battle in an effort to save his Mori clan. He made the right move, and his clan was not killed off by the winning forces. But Hiroie was poorly regarded after the battle not only by the winning side, but by his own clansmen who regarded him as a traitor. He was banished to Iwakuni, another place near Hiroshima that we visited in November. The clan’s wealth and property were much diminished and Hiroshima castle, built by the Mori, was taken from them by the victorious Tokugawa shogunate.
From the castle, we began a slow walk back to the railway station about one and a half kilometres away, hoping to find an Okonomiyaki late lunch. The Station has about 20 Okonomiyaki eateries where the Hiroshima version is built in layers. A thin crepe base is topped with chopped cabbage, pork, and an egg, all stacked over a bed of fried yakisoba or udon noodles. You can opt for other ingredients such as prawns (shrimp). We lucked in on an excellent place where we sat up at a bar surrounding the kitchen. It was licensed too, so Mike enjoyed a beer and I had a sake. We moved onto another place with good cake and coffee before taking a train late in the day back to our base in Okayama.
Both my Hiroshima visits have been day trips from another base city. This latest trip made me realise that is pretty foolish as Hiroshima offers so much for the visitor to enjoy, and there are wonderful towns nearby to visit. So – next time – I’ll be staying a while.
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