A treasure hunt sounds light-hearted. In Hiroshima that word does not come easily, which is why this route works differently: it does not ask you to win, it asks you to look. Twelve stops, about 5.1 kilometres, and at every stop a question whose answer is somewhere around you.
What makes this treasure hunt different here
Most city routes run from sight to sight. This one runs from what was rebuilt to what was deliberately left unrepaired. Hiroshima Castle was carefully reconstructed after 1945 after its sixteenth-century original, with its keep, moats and stone walls. The Atomic Bomb Dome — once the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall — still stands exactly as the blast left it. Both extremes sit on a single walk, and the questions along the way turn on that contrast: what you see, what survived, and what was put back. Scoring is beside the point here; noticing is the point.
What you pass along the way
You walk by the Orizuru Tower, where the 'Hiroshima Hills' observation deck looks out over the city and across to the Dome, and where paper cranes drift down along the Orizuru Wall. You reach the Children's Peace Monument for Sadako Sasaki, where visitors from all over the world leave their folded cranes. And you pass the Hiroshima Museum of Art, home to French Impressionists including Monet and Renoir — a different side of the city, where culture flowered again after the destruction.
Practical details
The route has twelve stops and is roughly 5.1 kilometres long; allow two to two and a half hours, longer if you take your time at the memorials. The longest stretch between two stops is about 850 metres. You can begin anywhere on the route and walk at your own pace — pause and pick it up again whenever you like. All you need is a phone: the walk opens in your browser, with no download and no account.
Who it suits
Anyone who would rather understand Hiroshima than tick it off. The questions keep your attention on the place instead of on your screen. The Hiroshima walk is free to play.
