Hiroshima in April.

mrmac · 07-03-2015 5:12am #1

Hi, hope to get some advice about a trip to Hiroshima.

It looks like I'm going to be there for 5 weeks, end of March to the beginning of May. Sounds great, but I'll actually be working fairly hard, Monday to Friday.

As I've never been to that side of the planet, I'd greatly appreciate any advice on the area, food, entertainment, travel, prices, things to see / visit (weekends only!).

TIA

Links234 · 07-03-2015 5:46am

If you've only got weekends free, then it might be an idea to plan a couple of little weekend trips. You can get a JR rail pass, I seriously recommend one of those and in Hiroshima you'll be on the Shinkansen line so you can get to your destinations easily and it won't be taken up by travel time. So, what I would do in your place is each weekend pick a different location and get a hostel there. Spend a weekend in Kyoto! Another weekend in Osaka, or maybe another in Fukuoka since you're close to Kyushu. Totally up to yourself. See the museum in Hiroshima definitely, but be warned it's kinda harrowing.

I'd recommend going to Nara if you like to do the kinda touristy thing and see temples and the like, it's absolutely gorgeous and you get to see the famous bowing deer, it's wonderful!

Food? Just go wild! Try everything and be adventurous! Some of the best food in the world, just be sure to try out some ramen while you're there, you can go into a crappy little dive of a ramen bar and get an incredible meal for next to nothing. Try takoyaki while in Osaka! You might hate it, but it's something worth trying once. I ate things that were awesome and I couldn't even tell you what they were. Try katsudon, that has to be one of my favourite meals ever. Try some Japanese beer, I'd highly recommend Yona Yona Ale.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

Konata · 07-03-2015 5:17pm

Links234 wrote: »

You can get a JR rail pass, I seriously recommend one of those and in Hiroshima you'll be on the Shinkansen line so you can get to your destinations easily and it won't be taken up by travel time.

This depends on what visa the OP is heading over on! If they're going to be working, they should be on a work/working holiday visa and won't qualify for a JR pass. OP can confirm what visa they're on though.

mrmac · 08-03-2015 12:45am

I'm just going on the 90 day tourist visa.
I get paid by the European Office, and it's a 'service' job so no long term involvement, or specific need for a 'working' visa.

The JR rail pass sounds great! Is it a pass for a number of journeys, a number of days, or are they like the Leap Card and just have 'credit'?

I'm not sure, but I might have access to a car - is that a good idea, or would public transport be better?
I'm a numpty at languages, thankfully every country I've been too seems to speak pretty good English!
Can bus/train tickets be bought online?

Had a wee lol at the idea of a hostel!
Way past those days - I don't need luxury, but I do like my own space.
Any chains of cheap & cheerful motels/hotels/B&Bs that I should look at?

I've got 4 week-ends, with 1 definitely needed to tour around Hiroshima - so that leaves 3.
Nara sounds good too - so that leaves 2....

Thanks for all the info.

Konata · 08-03-2015 12:32pm

mrmac wrote: »

I'm just going on the 90 day tourist visa.
I get paid by the European Office, and it's a 'service' job so no long term involvement, or specific need for a 'working' visa.

The JR rail pass sounds great! Is it a pass for a number of journeys, a number of days, or are they like the Leap Card and just have 'credit'?

I'm not sure, but I might have access to a car - is that a good idea, or would public transport be better?
I'm a numpty at languages, thankfully every country I've been too seems to speak pretty good English!
Can bus/train tickets be bought online?

Had a wee lol at the idea of a hostel!
Way past those days - I don't need luxury, but I do like my own space.
Any chains of cheap & cheerful motels/hotels/B&Bs that I should look at?

I've got 4 week-ends, with 1 definitely needed to tour around Hiroshima - so that leaves 3.
Nara sounds good too - so that leaves 2....

Thanks for all the info.

Ah grand so you can qualify for the JR pass. I'm not sure it will work out to be financially viable for you. Just google it put you buy either a 1 week, 2 week or 3 week pass and it allows you unlimited travel on most JR railways in that time period (there are some restrictions e.g. you can't use the nozomi shinkansen or private railways etc.). Best thing to do would be look at the cost of the different passes then use a site like hyperdia.com to input your planned journeys and then see which one adds up cheaper! Since you can only move around at weekends it'll probably work out cheaper just to buy the tickets to wherever you're going rather than the pass.

Re a car, it all depends on where you want to go. For just getting around Hiroshima, stick with public transport. If you're going to Kyoto, Nara, Osaka etc. I'd also stick with public transport. The shinkansen to these places are fast, convenient and frequent. If you want to go to some tiny village or just for a random drive through the countryside then that's where a car would be handy. I lived in Japan for a year, and travelled for a month previous to that, and only rented a car once to get to this fairly remote place that would've taken hours and hours to get to otherwise due to the infrequency of trains. It was stressful enough to drive though when you're not familiar with the roads and signs and oh god, the tolls! Remember that you'll need to apply for an international licence before you leave though.

There's a lot of English around in the big cities so you'll generally be fine. You can reserve some bus/train tickets online but the site are usually in Japanese only. If you really want to reserve stuff in advance, go to a JR counter at any of the big train stations or in the airport and ask there - they'll usually have an English speaker.

I've no recommendations for places to stay, apologies but you could try Airbnb maybe?

Make sure you go to Miyajima at some point. It's an island a short ferry trip from Hiroshima, pretty famous and very beautiful. Google it anyway, it's a great wee half-day/day trip.

Atavan-Halen · 08-03-2015 11:13pm

Highly recommend a trip to miyajima Island and Nara, both accessible from Hiroshima. Public transport is very reliable and easy to get around by, as all the station names are in English and they make announcements in English too. One thing you might find is that not a lot of people outside of hotels and train stations will speak English but people are generally quite friendly and I was able to get by by pointing at a map the odd time I was a bit lost. Definitely try okonomiyaki while in Hiroshima. It's like a savoury pancake that's absolutely delicious.

Hiroshima in April.

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