Chugoku

Hiroshima — The Most Important City to Visit Slowly

Photo: Stephan Leuzinger / Pexels

At 8:15 on the morning of 6 August 1945, an American B-29 released a uranium bomb 600 metres above the centre of Hiroshima. The city had 350,000 inhabitants; by the end of the year, between 90,000 and 140,000 were dead. The Genbaku Dome — the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, which stood almost directly beneath the hypocenter — survived because the blast came straight down through its roof rather than sideways through its walls. It stands unreconstructed on the riverbank today, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most articulate ruin in Japan.

The Peace Memorial Museum, a long building designed by Kenzo Tange that stretches above its pillars across the park's central axis, tells the story without evasion: the lead-up to war, the moment of detonation, the hours and years that followed. The exhibits include shadow photographs — the outlines of people burned into stone steps by the flash — watches stopped at 8:15, and the paper cranes folded by Sadako Sasaki, a girl who died of radiation-induced leukaemia ten years later. Most visitors take two to three hours; many need longer. The city that rebuilt around this memory is modern, liveable, and generous, with an okonomiyaki culture (Hiroshima-style, layered rather than mixed) that belongs entirely to itself.

Miyajima — The Floating Torii Gate

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Itsukushima Shrine on the island of Miyajima was built over tidal flats in the 6th century and rebuilt in its current form in 1168. The vermilion torii gate standing 200 metres offshore is Japan's most photographed image — and one of the few that lives up to its reputation. At high tide the gate appears to float; at low tide visitors walk across the exposed seabed to its base, touching the barnacle-encrusted pillars. The shrine itself, a series of orange-lacquered corridors built on platforms above the water, is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside the Genbaku Dome on the mainland.

The island has a five-storied pagoda, a noh stage that sits over the tidal flats, a ropeway to the summit of Mount Misen (535 m), and deer that wander freely through the shopping streets and shrine precincts. The deer are the island's most visible inhabitants — semi-wild, accustomed to people, and not above stealing a map from a distracted tourist. The approach from Miyajimaguchi by JR ferry takes 10 minutes; the Matsudai ferry, operated separately, allows a slight detour but the view of the torii from the water is the same.

Onomichi — The City of Temples and Cat Alleys

Photo: Jan Bouken / Pexels

Onomichi is a hillside city in eastern Hiroshima Prefecture that faces the Seto Inland Sea across a narrow strait. Twenty-five temples are threaded into the slope above the old town in a walking course called the Temple Walk — stone steps connecting gardens, incense smoke, and city views that compress the pattern of a much older Japan into a single afternoon. The town below is narrow lanes, independent coffee shops, and a shotengai shopping arcade that has resisted the standard national-chain colonisation. Cats, which have been associated with the city for decades, appear everywhere: on walls, on steps, in shrine photographs.

Onomichi is also the eastern starting point of the Shimanami Kaido — the 70 km cycling route that crosses six islands and seven cable-stayed bridges between Honshu and Shikoku above the Seto Inland Sea. The route is considered one of the finest cycling roads in the world: the bridges are wide, the gradients manageable, the views of the inland sea and its island traffic continuous. Rental cycles are available at the port; a ferry to Imabari at the other end runs several times daily for cyclists who don't want to make the return trip. The E-bike option allows riders who wouldn't otherwise manage the bridges to complete the full route.

Izumo Taisha — Where the Gods Meet in October

Photo: Hiroko Nakagawa / Pexels

Izumo Taisha in Shimane Prefecture is one of the oldest and most important Shinto shrines in Japan — second in standing only to Ise Jingu, and the only shrine in the country permitted to use the word 'taisha' (great shrine) without qualification. The main hall (honden), rebuilt most recently in 1744, stands 24 metres tall in a style that predates Buddhist architectural influence; its enormous shimenawa (sacred rope), weighing five tonnes, hangs from the Kagura-den prayer hall in the approach. The shrine's kami is Okuninushi-no-Mikoto, the god of relationships and marriages.

In the Japanese lunar calendar, the tenth month is called Kannazuki — the Month Without Gods — because all eight million kami of Japan are said to gather at Izumo Taisha during this period to decide the marriages and relationships of the coming year. At Izumo the same month is called Kamiari-zuki: the Month With Gods. Pilgrims have been arriving since the eighth century; the pine-lined approach (sando) and the enclosing forested hills absorb the crowds in a way that Kyoto's most visited shrines cannot. Matsue, the castle town 30 km east along Lake Shinji, is a natural overnight base — its samurai district and evening restaurant culture are exceptional for a city of its size.

Tottori — Japan's Only Desert, and Silence

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The Tottori Sand Dunes — Sakyu — stretch 16 km along the Sea of Japan coast east of Tottori city and reach 50 metres at their highest ridge. They are the only dunes of this scale in Japan: formed over 100,000 years by sand carried down from the Chugoku Mountains by the Sendai River and shaped by coastal wind into the familiar wavelike ridges that give the place its alien appearance. From the ridge, the Sea of Japan fills the horizon; the sound of the coast is continuous, and in wind the surface moves visibly. There is nothing like it in the country.

The Tottori Sand Dunes Conan Airport and the route from Osaka by JR San'in Line take four to five hours — the distance is precisely what keeps the dunes uncrowded by Japanese standards. Near the dunes, the Sand Museum (Sunamigakuen) is a rotating international exhibition of sand sculptures by artists from around the world, rebuilt every year in a format that changes with each season's theme. Tottori city itself is quiet, proud of its pears (Nijisseiki nashi, the region's most celebrated variety), and entirely unperforming for tourists.

• Getting there: Tottori city by JR Super Hakuto from Kyoto (~2.5 hours) or Himeji (~1.5 hours)
• Sand Dunes access: 20-minute bus from Tottori Station to Sakyu Center
• Best light: early morning or late afternoon — midday sun flattens the dune ridges
• Sand Museum: open year-round except for the January–February changeover period; check theme in advance
• Camel rides at the dunes are available but brief — the ridge walk on foot is the better experience

Getting Around Chugoku

• Tokyo/Osaka → Hiroshima: Nozomi Shinkansen, ~1h40 from Shin-Osaka / ~4h from Tokyo
• Hiroshima → Miyajima: JR San'yo Line to Miyajimaguchi, then JR ferry (10 min) — covered by JR Pass
• Hiroshima → Onomichi: JR San'yo Line, ~1h10 (local) or ~45 min (express)
• Onomichi → Imabari (Shimanami Kaido): cycling the full route takes 6–7 hours; a return ferry from Imabari runs several times daily
• Hiroshima → Izumo Taisha: JR + Ichibata Railway, ~4 hours; or JR to Matsue + local bus/taxi (~3.5h)
• Osaka/Kyoto → Tottori: JR Super Hakuto limited express, ~2.5h from Kyoto / ~2h from Himeji
• San'in coast (Tottori–Matsue–Izumo): JR San'in Line — slow but scenic; allow a full day for the coast