One day is enough for Hiroshima, provided you let the day run in the right direction. The twelve-stop route covers about 5.1 kilometres and falls into two uneven halves: a light morning in the north of the centre, and an afternoon that moves more slowly because the places ask for it.
Morning: garden, art and castle
You can begin anywhere, but the day runs best from Shukkeien Garden, a seventeenth-century strolling garden that condenses mountains, valleys and lakes into a miniature landscape. From there you walk to the city's art museums: the crisp Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum and the Hiroshima Museum of Art, with French Impressionists including Monet and Renoir — a collection that makes clear Hiroshima is an art city too. This stretch also takes in Hiroshima Castle, rebuilt after 1945 after its sixteenth-century original.
Around midday: the hinge
The longest single stretch of the walk sits here, about 850 metres, and that is exactly the right moment for a break. The northern part of the route is behind you; what follows asks for a different kind of attention. Take your time before you carry on.
Afternoon: the memorial section
The second half is compact: seven stops in and around the Peace Memorial Park, each a few hundred metres from the next. The hypocenter marker, the Atomic Bomb Dome less than 200 metres away, the Orizuru Tower with its view over the city and its Orizuru Wall, the Peace Memorial Museum, the Cenotaph with its Flame of Peace, the National Peace Memorial Hall, and the Children's Peace Monument with its cranes for Sadako Sasaki. Short in distance, long in time — count on more than the map suggests.
How the day divides
Twelve stops, roughly 5.1 kilometres, two to two and a half hours of pure walking. If you want to see the museums from the inside, that fills the rest of the day. You walk at your own pace and can break off and resume later. All you need is a phone, and the Hiroshima route is free to play.
