Started off the second day in Hiroshima with a Japanese style breakfast at restaurant in the hotel called Unkai (very Bento-like, and it was free as explained the previous day because of my IHG status :)). Details can be found here:

Unkai

After breakfast, it was time for the main purpose of visiting Hiroshima. Started walking to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (which is only a 7 minute walk from the hotel).

Started at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (took the longest time. It explained the moments leading up to the explosion, the remnants afterwards, the difficulties survivors had to deal with because of the radiation, and also focused a lot on getting rid of nuclear weapons in general). It was fairly emotional (didn’t fully realize how much the atomic bomb wiped out), but will say the Holocaust and 911 museums did evoke more emotions (not to discount any part of this experience).

After, walked around the park. A few minutes from the museum there was the Cenotaph and Peace flame within the park. Then walked over to the Children’s Peace Monument, and then visited Memorial Hall (which took maybe 20 minutes, which is a hall that is mainly focused on the victims of the atomic bomb (ie they have a registry).

Then headed to the Atomic Bomb dome, which is what is left of a building close to the hypocenter. Then walked over to the Peace Bell (and gave it a small ding), and finished off visiting the Hypocenter (where a statue is situated).

After leaving the Memorial Park, walked 5 minutes over to Hiroshima Gate Park and got a quick latte and tortilla at the Starbucks.

Then headed to Sakurao Distillery via a 25 minute uber/taxi ride. Here are some notes:

-Sakurao originally started with just sake, but expanded later to gin (especially since there were wild juniper berries around Hiroshima) and whisky.

-For the gin process, steeping and vaporing are used to soak up the botanicals 

-For whisky two types of ingredients, malt and barley. 

—First step is Mmilling, mashing of either malt or barley

—Second steps is Fermentation: Then yeast is added, which feeds the sugar that creates alcohol. This is called the wash

-Then distillation

-Then aging

-Of course barrels make a difference

-some Barrels are stored in an unused railway tunnel in Togouchi, while others in warehouse in Sakurao (which we visited).

-They make their whisky sweeter by adding more flour than say Suntory

We were showed three buildings. Distillery 1, Distillery 2, and the warehouse (where they explained how whisky does evaporate in there).

From the picture below of the tasting, going from right to left, it got from no peat to definitely peaty. Also had to add three drops of water since it is cask strength. Last one was very peaty! Also all of them are only available in the distillery. I ended up getting a bottle of the right most one (Sakurao Sauternes Cask Finish).

Next on the stop was Miyajima. Took a taxi to Miyajimaguchi Station, then took a ferry over.

First impressions of the island is not what I was expecting. It had a good amount of visitors (and lots of folks from Europe lol), and the organization seemed like Disneyland (but not in any kid way). 

First stop was Itsukushima Shrine and the floating gate (called Tori). The gate at this time of year isn’t floating! (Obviously because of low tide). So was kinda sad about that. Then did a quick stop as Daishoin Temple (strolled around but didn’t really appreciate too much of the significances). Also hiked around Momijidani Park for 20 minutes (and like the rest of Miyajima saw lots of deer).

Overall would say that I could come back to Miyajima and stay there for a night and explore some more (and do things like the Mt. Misen Ropeway (ie a lift that goes over the island).

Took a ferry back to Miyajimaguchi Ststion, and Ubered back to the hotel.

One thing I also had to do today is reserve my Shinkansen (high speed Japan train) tickets for tomorrow to go to Shin-Osaka (not to be confused with Osaka station), then Tokyo. I will say that using the Shinkansen website to buy the tickets made things fairly easy. Here are some tips: reserving green seats are basically first class. Advantage of this is that you can also reserve a seat that includes oversized bag storage for free (which I did because my checked luggage was super heavy). You can also easily change your reservation (ie seat and train) on the website. 

After, did a bit of exploration again around the Nagarekawa, Hondori, and Hatchobori neighborhoods. Ate dinner at a place called Le Jyan Jyan (did want a hamburger steak, but in hindsight might have explored a bit more). Details can be found here:

Le Jyan Jyan

After stopped by this mainly whisky bar, Bar Little Happiness:

https://food.johnmatienzo.com/2026/04/22/bar-little-happiness/

Wanted to explore more, but super tired from the rest of the day, so called it pretty early.

If coming back again, would try and visit the recommendations from this website:

https://japanspecialist.com/w/hiroshima-party-grid-nagarekawa