Etajima: The Naval Academy You Can Only See on a Guided Tour
Etajima is the one place near Hiroshima that no tour company sells. Search the booking platforms and you will find nothing, which reads like a warning and is actually the opposite: the site cannot be packaged because it is an operating military installation, and the only way in is a free guided tour run by […]
Kure Navy Curry: Every Warship Has Its Own Recipe, and the Captain Signs It Off
In Kure you can eat a specific warship’s curry. Not curry in a naval style, not curry at a military-themed restaurant — the actual recipe from a named vessel of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, taught to the restaurant by that ship’s own cooks, and served only after that ship’s captain has eaten it and […]
Miyajima Tides: Why “High Tide” and “Low Tide” Are the Wrong Things to Look Up
Almost every English page about Miyajima tells you the same thing: come at high tide and the torii appears to float, come at low tide and you can walk out to it. That is not how it works, and following it is the reason people leave disappointed. The Miyajima tourist association states outright that both […]
Saijo Sake Town: A Half Day from Hiroshima Among Seven Breweries
Saijo is one of the three great sake towns of Japan, alongside Nada and Fushimi. It is thirty-five minutes from Hiroshima Station, seven breweries stand within a few minutes’ walk of the station exit, and it receives a fraction of the visitors the other two do. That last part is the whole point. In Fushimi […]
Hiroshima Castle in 2026: The Keep Is Closed. Here’s What’s Still Open.
If a guidebook told you to climb Hiroshima Castle for the view over the city, that advice expired on 22 March 2026. The keep closed to the public that day and it has not reopened. Most English-language pages have not caught up. This is not a temporary closure with a reopening date. Nobody — including […]
Kure Day Trip from Hiroshima: The 2026 Guide (Yamato Museum Has Reopened)
Most English guides to Kure still tell you the Yamato Museum is closed for renovation, and that you will have to make do with a one-room substitute exhibition. That was true for fourteen months. It stopped being true on 23 April 2026. The main building is open again, the tenth-scale battleship is back on the […]