Japan (Lonely Planet, 11th Edition) - Chris Rowthorn [359]
Opium (504-0255; 3rd fl, Namiki Curl Bldg, 3-12 Mikawa-chō; dishes from ¥500; 6pm-4am) Groovy minimalist spot with good views out onto the street below. Cocktails start at ¥600, and happy hour is from 6pm to 9pm. Snacks, pizza and pasta dishes are available from an English menu. There’s a bright purple sign on the wall outside.
Lotus (246-0104; 5th fl, Namiki Curl Bldg, 3-12 Mikawa-chō; drinks from ¥500; 6pm-3am) Two floors above Opium (see above) is Lotus, a stylish, Zen-like space where you can take off your shoes and relax on the raised floor amid cushions, or sip ¥600 cocktails from the English menu at the bar.
Koba (249-6556; 3rd fl, Rego Bldg, 1-4 Naka-machi; dishes ¥700-1200; 6pm-2am, closed Wed) Friendly Koba is an extremely chilled place to enjoy a few drinks and a curry, along with an eclectic range of music. It’s in a concrete building with a pool of water by the entrance, just behind Stussy.
Kuro-sawa (247-7750; 5th fl, Tenmaya Ebisuclub, 3-20 Horikawa-chō Naka-ku; dishes under ¥1000; 6pm-2.30am Mon-Thu, to 3.30am Fri & Sat, to 12.30am Sun) A swish and trendy ‘Japanese style public house’ hewn from bare concrete, with seating at the bar or on velvet chairs in a raised red-carpet area. All the usual izakaya standards are available from an English menu. Don’t forget to visit the remarkable bathrooms. From Nagarekawa-dōri, turn right into the Ebisu-dōri arcade. It’s in the third building on the left, marked by a small red sign, opposite the Italian Tomato Café.
J-Café (242-1234; 4-20 Fujimi-chō Naka-ku; noon-2am, to 3am Fri & Sat) Sophisticated boutique cafe with plush red sofas and graffiti art adorning the walls. Old cartoons flicker from the wall above the bar. A wide range of delicious crepes (¥600) and other snacks are on offer. There’s an English menu. The sign outside has a stylised ‘j’ that looks like an ampersand.
Getting There & Away
Hiroshima’s main airport (0848-86-8151; www.hij.airport.jp; 64-31 Zennyūji, Hongō-chō, Mihara-shi) is 40km east of the city, with bus connections to/from Hiroshima Station (¥1300, 48 minutes). There are flights to/from Tokyo (¥30,800, one hour and 15 minutes), Sapporo (¥45,700, one hour and 50 minutes), Sendai (¥39,000, one hour and 20 minutes) and Naha (¥32,000, two hours), as well as flights to Seoul, Dalian, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei (all daily), Bangkok (Monday and Friday) and Guam (Monday and Thursday). Hiroshima Nishi airport (822-95-2650; www.hij.airport.jp/nishi/, in Japanese; 4-10-2 Kannon Shin-machi, Nishi-ku), 4km southwest of the city centre on the coast, has daily flights to Miyazaki (¥23,700, one hour) and Kagoshima (¥23,700, one hour) in Kyūshū. There are regular buses to/from Hiroshima Station (¥240, 20 minutes).
Hiroshima is an important stop on the Tokyo–Osaka–Hakata shinkansen route. The trip from Hiroshima to Hakata (Fukuoka) takes roughly 1¼ hours (¥8190); to Osaka, it’s 1½ hours (¥9470), and to Tokyo it’s four hours (¥17,540).
The JR San-yō line passes through Hiroshima westwards to Shimonoseki, hugging the coastline much of the way. The ordinary local services move along fairly quickly and are the best way to visit the nearby attractions of Miyajima and Iwakuni. Long-distance buses connect Hiroshima with all the major cities. Buses depart from the Hiroshima Bus Centre, located on the 3rd floor between the Sogo and AQ’A shopping centres by the Kamiya-cho Nishi tram stop.
There are regular connections to Matsuyama in Shikoku across the Inland Sea. The Hiroshima-to-Matsuyama ferry (¥3500, 2¾ hours, 10 daily) and hydrofoil (¥6900, one hour and 15 minutes, 14 daily) services leave from Ujina (). The port () is the last stop on tram lines 1, 3 and 5 from the station.
Getting Around
Hiroshima has an extensive tram service that will get you almost anywhere you want to go for a flat fare of ¥150. There