An Overnight Trip To Hiroshima, Miyajima & Himeji From Osaka

From Osaka, we headed west to visit a castle, an island, and a memorial.

This was one of the most ambitious parts of the trip, and I’m here to tell you that everything in the blog post title worked perfectly. The additional plan of also going to Rabbit Island did not.

We left Osaka bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, aiming for a train soon after 8am. We strategically booked the same hotel for the following night in Osaka, meaning we were able to leave our bags at the hotel while we went to Hiroshima for one night. There are plenty of lockers at train stations, but firstly you have to pay for those, and also it saved us lugging them to the station and spending time sorting the lockers and then having a panic when we get back trying to find the correct locker (because we just know that would happen to me).

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This meant we left Osaka just with our hand luggage sized backpacks, off on our mini side quest of Japan.

We had just planned one night in Hiroshima, with a stop in Himeji on the way, and an afternoon on Miyajima Island, one of my bucket list stops of the trip. The original plan was to visit the Peace Memorial Museum and Park the following morning before heading to Rabbit Island for the rest of the day to cheer ourselves up. It would have been possible, but it was tight. I’ll go into more detail further down because I’ve still got all the times and details written down!

Anyway, here’s what we DID get up to on our “mini adventure”.

Himeji

Our first stop would be Himeji, around half an hour out of Osaka on the JR train. Himeji is home to one of the most impressive castles in Japan, and although we weren’t planning to go inside, we really wanted to see it up close.

You can even see it from the train as you pass through Himeji, but we wanted more than simply snatching a brief glimpse, and it’s only a 20 minute walk straight up to it from the station.

Himeji Castle is truly formidable, perched on rock, looking impenetrable.

I was thrilled as we approached the castle to see that it was surrounded by cherry blossoms! Up until this point, we hadn’t had much luck with cherry blossoms, having just missed them in Tokyo and Kyoto. In fact, this was one of the best parts of the trip when it came to cherry blossoms, so expect plenty of them in this post!

I ended up walking around the entire castle for different views – I will say now, not really worth it. It was a pleasant walk through the park behind the castle, but not really any views of the castle itself, sadly.

I knew exactly what I was looking for – a shot across the moat with the castle in the background and an iconic red bridge in the foreground. It turns out that this shot is actually from the zoo, which is why I couldn’t find it, although apparently there is a way to get to a small open space just south of the zoo and north of a temple.

However, I do really like the first photo which is sort of the same but without any reflections or blossoms!

Anyway, I was happy enough with these from the front.

It was when I got back to the front of the castle that I saw something crazy. In fact, I wished I’d asked them to stop for a proper photo as I just had to snatch this one from behind after they’d gone past!

Back at the station, we got our onward tickets for Hiroshima. This is where we saw one of the best things of the entire trip!!!

Have you ever heard of the men who pop out of ticket machines to help people? I honestly thought it was a myth.

It is not!!!!!!!!! We actually saw it happen!!!! Look at him!!!

Himeji gave us more than we bargained for – a spectacular castle, an insane dressed-up dog, AND a man in the ticket machine?? I think we just hit peak Japan.

Read more: My Top 10 Highlights Of Our Trip To Japan

Miyajima Island

After another hour or so, including a change in Okayama, we arrived in Hiroshima. However instead of leaving the station, we were changing to a train that would take us out to Miyajimaguchi.

It’s here that you can catch the boat out to Miyajima Island, and it’s all pretty straightforward as they leave regularly. The boat itself takes around ten minutes, so it’s quick and seamless getting to the island.

My first glimpse of the famous torii gate in the water was one of those moments of “I hope this isn’t going to be underwhelming when it’s a bucket list item”. It doesn’t look like much from the boat, but approaching it from land is a totally different story.

This was one of my favourite places to take photos in the whole of Japan. It’s just so photogenic!

We were also really lucky because in 2020, it was covered up for over a year while it was being repainted, and we were going to have to skip it. I imagine that the reason it was being repainted would have been because the old coat was wearing thin. So not only did we manage to see it, but we saw it at its boldest. The beautiful red popped against the water.

We set up camp in full view of the gate, enjoying some snacks and, finally, a Rikuro’s cheesecake which our friends had managed to source in Osaka just before they left. There is a Lawson on the island which is perfect for picking up extra snacks and drinks. We ended up spending the entire afternoon just sitting and relaxing by the water; something we hadn’t done, or even thought of doing, at all on the trip so far.

It was wonderful, actually. You can hike on the island, up Mount Misen, and you might be surprised to hear I had no interest in it. I was happy to sit and take it all in. It was probably one of my favourite afternoons of the trip, just not doing much and not even feeling guilty about it, because for me this was a bucket list destination in itself.

I did take a wander past the Itsukushima shrine to explore a couple of the streets behind it, but that was it.

The cherry blossoms were out in force, although there’s a nearby park which is more famous for its autumn leaves on the maple trees. I totally missed this but it looks beautiful with a classic Japanese red bridge. I can definitely confirm that spring is also a phenomenal time to go, though!

That does explain why Miyajima has a specialty “biscuit” called “momiji manju”, shaped like a maple leaf and filled with red bean paste. It’s not a biscuit, it’s a weird soft cake texture, and I’ve got to be honest, I didn’t really like it. They also sell KitKats with the same flavour! Also not my favourite.

Looking back, this might have been a good place to do some proper souvenir shopping, as we actually had time for once, and I didn’t even check out the street of shops that had things like teddy bear character ice cream!

I did pop into one shop to buy a rice paddle though, which is one of the unique souvenirs of Miyajima. Legend has it that a monk in the temple dreamed that a deity had shown him how to make the perfect rice spoon, which became an icon of Miyajima. These days, they are sold with fortunes on them, from wealth to fertility. I chose one that says “happiness”.

The other famous resident on Miyajima is the deer. Like Nara, they are everywhere! However I will say they are not as polite. They can be really pushy, shoving their heads into your bags and aggressively trying to get to anything you try to hide from them. I didn’t see anyone being attacked or anything like that, but we were definitely having to watch our things, and there were a few expletives being thrown around! I hope they’re not as sacred here as they are in Nara…

So if you plan to take a picnic over to Miyajima (which I DO recommend!) then be very aware of this.

Want more deer? Check out Hanging Out With The Polite Deer In Nara, Japan

Hiroshima – stepping back in time

We decided to take the tram back into Hiroshima, as the train stations were all much more of a walk from our hostel. Taking the tram meant we could get off a block away, although it wasn’t included on our JR pass.

After checking in and dropping our stuff, we headed back out in the dark to grab some food; we were on a mission to find Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. While the dish in general is an Osaka specialty, Hiroshima has their own regional spin on it and it’s one of their most famous dishes.

We found a couple of places on the map which were either shut or full, and stumbled across a very local place instead. We were the only Westerners in the place and they spoke little English. They offered two types of okonomiyaki (“Kuro Yaki” and “Shiro Yaki”), so we had one of each to share, and the guy came out with a little blowtorch!

The Kuro Yaki is a crispy okonomiyaki, while the Shiro Yaki is more fluffy with thicker noodles, and they add the egg on top after it’s cooked, whereas the Kuro one is cooked with the egg in the middle layer.

This was a great meal, and I was glad it was somewhere we had just stumbled across.

Afterwards, we took a wander to the Peace Park just a few minutes away, to get our first glance at the famous A-bomb building that still stands to represent one of the worst atrocities in human history.

In the park, we came across the eternal flame, and further along the arch that lines up with the flame and the A-bomb building in the background. Just after I took a photo, a Japanese man appeared and stood at the arch, praying. It was such a sobering moment.

In the morning, we headed to the Peace Memorial Museum, which honestly is one of the most important places to visit in Japan. The museum relays accounts of people’s lives throughout the Hiroshima disaster, as well as the many, many, many deaths and pulverisations. I felt empty as I looked at children’s school uniforms, photos of people beyond help, and the infamous shadow…

The “human shadow etched in stone” is what remains of a man who was sat outside a bank waiting for it to open when the bomb went off. It is… haunting. There are lots of other stories, like the child who was riding a tricycle which is now on display. Watches stopped with the time of the bomb, with information about the people who owned them.

It’s obviously horrifying, but the museum itself is excellent in the way it’s laid out and stories presented. It really feels like a tribute to the victims of the atrocities. There’s also a section about the bomb itself and how to avoid anything like this happening again, but the main part of the museum is dedicated solely to the victims.

Read more sobering war history: Facing The Worst Of Humanity At Auschwitz

We also took another walk around some of the park to see it in the daylight. The area around the arch was much busier in the day time, and didn’t have the same impact on me as it had the night before. Nobody was praying; everyone was jostling for “that” photo.

We moved on, taking a look at the children’s memorial and a couple of others before heading over the bridge to see the A-bomb dome up close.

It’s sobering seeing just how much is still standing after 80 years, with the damage so apparent that it’s like it’s just happened.

From there, we could have gone to catch a 12.30pm train and head to Rabbit Island for the afternoon, but Google was reporting an issue on one of the lines. If we got there and missed the connections, it basically wouldn’t be worth going for the time we would have.

So we decided to go for a different type of fluffy relief instead – Japanese pancakes!

We had attempted to go to one of those uber-wobbly souffle pancake type places in Kyoto, but it was one my friends had found about on TikTok – along with the hundreds of people who were queueing, so we didn’t bother. I’d found A Happy Pancake on the map, so we decided to head there before leaving Hiroshima. It wasn’t quite the wibble-wobble we were looking for, but they were good pancakes!

Next door, we spotted these wacky musical instruments which I’d never heard of at the time, but after watching this video, I wish I’d bought one! As with everything in Japan, completely ridiculous.

Hiroshima wasn’t my favourite place in Japan, but it certainly made an impact and left a mark on my soul. The unimaginable events everyone there went through, if they were lucky enough not to be pulverised. Some may argue that would have been preferable.

The main thing we didn’t do in Hiroshima was the castle, but while it does look quite pretty, it’s not as good as Himeji or Osaka, so we skipped it.

Read about another great castle: A Love Letter To Osaka, Japan: Why It’s Worth More Than A Day Trip

If you want to add Rabbit Island…

Realistically, I don’t think you need a lot of time on Rabbit Island. The itinerary I had put together would have given us 2-3 hours on the island, which is ample time to do the loop. And to be honest, we didn’t even need to do the full loop. There’s a poison gas museum which has mixed reviews – the main theory about all the rabbits is that they were originally test subjects for the factory… so a dark history to such a lovely, fluffy place – but the main draw is of course the hundreds of rabbits that descend upon you the minute you arrive.

Here are the timetables I had written down:

Hiroshima to Mihara: 12:38 – 13:03
Mihara to Tadanoumi: 13:08 – 13:30
Ferry to Rabbit Island 14:05
Ferry back to the mainland: 16:35
Tadanoumi to Mihara: 17:31 – 17:54
Train back to Osaka: various

As you can see, the connection at Mihara is very tight. There was a later train at 13:58, getting in to Tadanoumi at 14:32, leaving plenty of time to get the 15:00 ferry. This would then not have left much time on the island, as we would have needed to get one back to the mainland at either 16:35 or 17:16. The later ferry would have meant not getting to Mihara until around 7pm, and from there it’s over an hour back to Osaka, with only limited trains stopping at Mihara.

I used these sites as resources for the timetables: RabbitIsland.info | Sanyo Shosen | Rabbit Line

I swear I spent more time researching whether this would be possible for us to do than we would have actually spent on the island, and then we didn’t even get to go. But to be honest it was the only plan that didn’t work out on the entire trip, which is pretty good going, really!

Overall, I have no regrets for what we DID do. I thought Himeji might be an ambitious pit stop, but it was actually perfect and we didn’t feel rushed at all. We just headed back to the station and hopped on the next train.

If I’d been REALLY strategic (and bothered), we could have waited a bit longer in Himeji and got on the Hello Kitty shinkansen! The downside would have been that it would have filled up in Osaka, and there’s no way we would have got a seat as it only runs once a day in each direction, so anyone who wants to get the Hello Kitty train WILL be on that one. I didn’t really fancy an hour of standing, even if it is on a very unique train!

Anyway, this was the first, and probably only, point of the trip where we realised we truly couldn’t do everything. After all, skipping Rabbit Island meant more time in Osaka, where we had one of the best meals of the entire trip that evening. It gave us time for a scouting mission in Don Quijote – one thing I had not planned time for was browsing for souvenirs, of which we wanted too many in Japan.

And instead of rushing around for two days, we’d had a really chilled time, which made a change from the rest of the trip so far. We got to see an iconic castle, pay tribute and learn about one of the biggest humanitarian disasters in history, and got to see one of the most famous, quintessential views in Japan.

So all in all, a pretty successful couple of days – Japan side quest complete!

Read more about our travels around Japan:
⭐ A Love Letter To Osaka, Japan: Why It’s Worth More Than A Day Trip
⭐ Hanging Out With The Polite Deer In Nara, Japan
⭐ Shrines, Temples & Geisha: How To Spend Two Days In Magical Kyoto, Japan
⭐ Five Days In The Bright Lights Of Tokyo
⭐ My Top 10 Highlights Of Our Trip To Japan
⭐ Our Perfect Two Week Itinerary For A First Time Visit To Japan