Hiroshima on a Budget: 6 Overlooked Picks

6 overlooked things to do in Hiroshima on a budget

The Peace Park and Miyajima earn every bit of their reputation, and belong on any first visit; the things-to-do guide covers them properly. These six sit a step further off that path, in the living city rather than the memorial sites.

  1. Ride one of the two surviving prewar Hiroden streetcars, around ¥240 fare (verify): cars 651 and 652 survived the atomic bombing and were reportedly still in passenger service as of 2025, a genuine link to 1945 running on an ordinary daily tram line rather than sitting in a museum.
  2. Tour the Mazda Museum, free but reservation typically required (verify): Mazda has been headquartered in the Hiroshima area since 1920, and its factory briefly housed the prefectural government after the bombing before resuming vehicle production days later. The factory tour is a genuine piece of the city’s postwar industrial story, not just a car showroom.
  3. Visit the Hiroshima Museum of Art, a modest entrance fee applies (verify): founded in 1978 in Hiroshima Central Park, it pairs Western European art (Monet, Renoir, Picasso, Matisse) with Japanese artists who worked in Western styles. Skipped by most visitors on a tight schedule, worth an hour if art is any part of your trip.
  4. Climb Orizuru Tower’s rooftop deck, a modest entrance fee applies (verify): right beside the A-Bomb Dome, the tower’s open-air “Hiroshima no Oka” deck gives city views, and “Orizuru Square” holds a continuing collective art installation, the Crane Wall, where visitors fold and toss their own paper cranes.
  5. Taste your way through Saijo’s sake district, roughly 1 hour by train (verify): Sakagura Dori runs past ten historic breweries in traditional namako-wall buildings, including Kamotsuru, Kamoizumi, and Fukubijin. Outside the October Sake Matsuri, when over 100,000 visitors show up, several breweries still run smaller tastings for a fraction of the crowd.
  6. Sit with the quiet of Shukkeien Garden, a modest entrance fee applies (verify): an Edo-period garden begun in 1620 that sheltered blast victims after the bombing and reopened to the public in 1951. It carries real history without asking for the solemn register the Peace Park does, a genuinely restful stop most itineraries skip in favor of Miyajima.

None of these six need a booked tour beyond the Mazda factory visit, and none compete for time with the Peace Park or Miyajima on a first trip; they’re better suited to a second day in the city or a slower schedule. For where to base yourself while working through this list, see the stay guide .