In the previous blog, I wrote why I loved travel and how many prefectures I have already visited. From this blog, I would like to tell you some good information and tips about trip based on my experience. Today’s topic is how to go to Hiroshima from other Japanese cities. So, let’s begin!
From which cities?
There must be some people who have decided to go to Hiroshima, but wonder how to get there.
Especially, those who do not take a trip a lot or who go to Hiroshima for the first time in there life have such a tendency that I hope I can help you.
However, if I write about how to go to Hiroshima from other cities all over Japan, I can’t move on to the next topic for a long time, thus basically I will introduce you how to go to a particular city from Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.
For example, I will not write about how to go to Hiroshima from Niigata. It may be inconvenient for you, but I hope you can understand my policy.
Of course, this may change from now on. Thank you.
In this blog, I will write about how to go to Hiroshima from Tokyo, and the next one is from Osaka and Nagoya.
How to go to Hiroshima from Tokyo
Is Hiroshima far from Tokyo?
I think there are a lot of people who are going to go to Hiroshima from Tokyo, a capital city of Japan.
This blog is written in English, thus it focuses on tourists from other countries. I think many of them use Haneda or Narita Airport when coming to Japan, thus I am very happy if this blog is useful for them.
First of all, I answer the question above “Is Hiroshima far from Tokyo?”
The answer is YES.
I am now in the U.S., but when I was in Japan, I lived in Tokyo and have been to Hiroshima from there. What I thought is Hiroshima is far.
Actually, from Tokyo, Fukuoka is farther than Hiroshima in terms of distance, but many people feel that Fukuoka is closer than Hiroshima for some reasons.
Of course, I will explain the reason later.
Then, let’s look at each transportation!
Shinkansen
My recommendation:
Probably, what you can imagine easily is Shinkansen.
In case you go to Hiroshima from Tokyo, it takes about 3 hours and 50 minutes directly by using Nozomi (the fastest type), thus you do not need to transfer.
The normal fare is ¥18,380 for a non-reserved seat, ¥19,760 for a reserved seat and ¥27,020 for green-car, which is a luxury seat.
However, by registering for Smart EX, an Internet reservation service for Tokaido, Sanyo and Kyushu Shinkansen, you can buy an official discount e-ticket. I recommend you to buy a Shinkansen ticket from this Internet service because the ticket office is always crowded in a big station. The cheapest one is Hayatoku-21 Wide and it only costs ¥15,000 for a reserved seat. Please check the detail in the official website: here.
For those who can’t decide the plan three weeks prior to your trip, I also recommend Hayatoku-7 to you.
By booking a seat at least seven days before your date of trip, you can get a big discount. For weekdays, it costs ¥16,190 and for weekends, it costs ¥15,790. I think it is also very cheap compared to the normal fare.
Anyone who owns a credit card can register for Smart EX, thus I strongly recommend it to you.
What you have to be careful about non-reserved seat for Nozomi is that the number of it will be decreased in next March (2025). Central Japan Railway Company has already announced it. Now, Nozomi has 16 cars, and 3 of them are used for non-reserved seat, but it will be 2. This means that you may not able to sit on a seat for many hours if you take Nozomi at Shinagawa Station. Nozomi is operated from Tokyo Station, and Shinagawa is the next stop. Please be careful, again.
Also, when you buy the round trip ticket between Tokyo and Hiroshima in the ticket office, you can get a 10% discount for a basic fare ticket. This discount is called as a round-trip discount and is applied for the trip 601km or more (According to JR, this discount will end in March, 2026)
Tips
The Shinkansen ticket is complicated even for Japanese.
In Japan, when you take a local train like JR Yamanote Line in Tokyo or JR Osaka Loop Line in Osaka, you just need to buy a basic fare ticket.
However, when you take the Shinkansen or express train, you have to buy both a basic fare ticket and a limited express non-reserved/reserved seat ticket.
When you buy this ticket for non-reserved seat, it is cheaper than that for reserved seat.
Due to this complicated ticket system and Japanese poor English skills, I have seen a lot of tourists who are confused when buying a ticket. Thus, I recommend you to use a Smart EX.
Also, a round-trip discount is only applied for a basic fare ticket, not for a limited express non-reserved/reserved seat ticket and you need to buy it at the ticket office, not at the ticket machine in order to get a discount.
Nozomi that goes to Hiroshima is operated three to five per an hour, which is very useful. Please look at the final destination of the Shinkansen carefully. If it is Shin-Osaka, it does not get to Hiroshima. If it is Hakata or Hiroshima, every Nozomi stops at Hiroshima station.
Shinkansen is actually very useful when you want to go to Hiroshima City because Shinkansen stops at Hiroshima Station, which is connected to JR local trains and trams, and it is located near the center of the city.
One negative point is that it takes almost four hours to get to Hiroshima.
If it exceeds four hours, an airplane is preferred to Shinkansen, thus for those who do not like to sit on the seat for a long time, it may be too long.
However, I recommend Shinkansen to you because you need no transfer.
Even though you have to sit on a seat for a long time, the total length of time is shorter than airplanes because Hiroshima Airport is very far from the city, which I will explain later.
Apart from Hiroshima city, I think there are some tourists who would like to visit east side of Hiroshima prefecture, such as Fukuyama and Onomichi.
In that case, the fare is cheaper than going to Hiroshima Station (for example, the fare for non-reserved seat between Tokyo and Fukuyama is ¥16,930), but there are two points that you should know.
First, only some Nozomi stop at Fukuyama, thus the direct Nozomi is operated every an hour.
Second, Onomichi is much worse than Fukuyama. First of all, the Shinkansen does not stop at Onomichi station, which is located in the center of the city for local trains, but stops at Shin-Onomich station, which is fifteen minutes away from the Onomichi Station by bus. Furthermore, no direct Nozomi stops at Shin-Onomichi Station, but only Kodama, which is a local-type Shinkansen that stops at all the station, stops at Shin-Onomichi every an hour. From Tokyo, you need to transfer at Fukuyama, thus it often takes more than four hours to reach.
Onomichi is closer than Hiroshima from Tokyo in terms of the distance, but it takes more time.
↑Onomichi is a famous sightseeing spot in Hiroshima prefecture, but Onomichi Station is not a big station because of the lack of Shinkansen.
Airplanes
My recommendation:
What you imagine next is probably airplanes.
You can take a flight both from Haneda and Narita Airport for Hiroshima Airport (flights from Narita is temporarily not operated now).
I can’t tell you the airplane fare because it changes because of some factors such as sale and when you buy it. What I can say is that it is cheaper than Shinkansen when you buy it through sale or a few months before your trip. Thus, for example, the ticket price one day prior to the departure is much more expensive than Shinkansen.
Before stopping operation, two flights were operated by Spring Japan between Narita and Hiroshima. Others are operated by two Japanese big airplane careers, ANA and JAL between Haneda and Hiroshima. Except sale or special discount, Spring Japan tend to be cheaper than ANA and JAL.
Between this two cities, ANA operates the flight eight times a day, and JAL operates it seven times a day, which mean that it is much fewer than Shinkansen.
Some may wonder that the number of flights is few even though Shinkansen takes about 4 hours.
The reason is a bad location of Hiroshima Airport as I said above. Due to this problem, the Shinkansen is more common than airplanes between Tokyo and Hiroshima.
This is actually a huge problem than you expect.
It is sometimes said that Haneda Airport is far from the center of Tokyo, but it is probably because it usually takes more than 30 minutes from Tokyo Station to Haneda Airport, and Haneda Airport is located in Tokyo Metropolitan Area.
However, Hiroshima Airport is not in Hiroshima City but in Mihara City, which is two cities away from Hiroshima. In addition to this, Hiroshima Airport was created in the mountain, and there is no train connection.
Thus, you need to take a bus to go to Hiroshima City. The most common one is a limousine bus that connects Hiroshima Airport to Hiroshima Station. It takes about 40 minutes from Airport to Station, and 50 minutes from Station to Airport.
Don’t you think it is far?
Due to this inconvenience and some processes in an airport, it takes more than four hours to go to center of Hiroshima from center of Tokyo even though the flight is only 1 hour and 20-30 minutes. The total amount of time is inferior to the Shinkansen.
Also, the fare costs ¥1,450, which is not cheap at all.
Including the ticket price in Tokyo, most of them have to pay additional 2,000-3000 yen, thus they tend to choose sitting for four hours by using Shinkansen.
Some may think that this airport is close to Onomichi because Mihara City is in the eastern part of Hiroshima prefecture, but it is actually not.
A local bus is operated for Mihara Station, but it costs ¥840 and takes 38 minutes.
A direct bus is not operated for Onomichi, thus you need to transfer to JR Sanyo Line at Mihara Station, or you can use a share taxi, which needs reservation, if you want to directly get to Onomichi, but it costs ¥4,000 per person.
A bus to go to Fukuyama costs ¥1,400 and takes 65 minutes, thus the Shinkansen is much superior to airplanes in terms of time.
However, I think there are some people who bought a cheap ticket thanks to the special sale by ANA or JAL or using Spring Japan flight from Narita, and want to save as much money as possible.
For those, I can tell you a good way to save a little money (Sorry, you can’t save a huge amount of money).
Tips: a good way to go to Hiroshima Station from Hiroshima Airport as cheap as possible
A car for highway bus is used for the airport limousine and you can directly go to Hiroshima Station, thus it is expensive.
Then, instead, by taking a local bus and JR Sanyo Line, you can save some money. First, take the local bus operated by Geiyo Bus at 4th bus stop in Hiroshima Airport and get off at JR Shiraichi Station. It takes 14 minutes and costs ¥400.
Then, take JR Sanyo Line to the west for Hiroshima. It takes 46 minutes and costs ¥770 to get there. Including the transfer, it takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes and the total ticket price ¥1,170.
You can save ¥280 by using this method. Also, if you have a plan to go to Miyajima, you can save more money than taking limousine. It is because you can directly go to Miyajima-Guchi Station, the closet station from Miyajima, from Shiraichi Station unless you take the train for Itsukaichi. You do not need to transfer at Hiroshima Station. By doing so, the ticket costs ¥1,170 between Shiraichi and Miyajima-Guchi and it takes 1 hour and 14 minutes. The total cost is ¥1,570 and it takes less than 2 hours.
When you use limousine bus and JR lines to go to Miyajima, each ticket costs ¥1,450 and ¥420, thus the total is ¥1,870. You have to transfer at Hiroshima Station in this case, thus this means you can save ¥300 just by transferring at Shiraichi Station, not at Hiroshima Station.
Some of the trains begin its service at Shiraichi Station, thus you can sit on the seat and about 4 trains are operated per hour. I think it is very useful, thus if you want to save some money, I recommend it to you.
The detail information is here (I am sorry, but this website is written only in Japanese).
I have used this route before. At that time, my flight from Hiroshima to Haneda was late at night, but this Geiyo bus was operated.
This is about the airplanes and their information between Tokyo and Hiroshima. If you do not want to take a bus at least for 40 minutes, I think the Shinkansen is better for you.
You can get more information about the bus from Hiroshima Airport to many areas in Hiroshima prefecture from here.
↑This is a picture taken in front of the Shiraichi Station. The bus you can see is Geiyo bus that goes to airport. This bus stop is in front of the station.
Overnight buses
My recommendation:
Based on the explanation above, the Shinkansen is superior to airplanes in terms of time and convenience, but a big problem is a price. At least it costs ¥15,000 and there must be many people who think it is expensive.
If you can’t buy the plane tickets during the sale, it is much more expensive than the Shinkansen. One way to save a huge amount of money is taking an overnight bus.
By using an Internet reservation discount or early reservation discount, you can go to Hiroshima at ¥5,000 yen (this is the cheapest and varies depending on the season). The drawback is that it takes about 11-12 hours.
It depends on each person whether choosing this option, but I have never chosen it.
It is because I have to do sightseeing with feeling sleepy if I can’t sleep very well during the move because the bus leaves Tokyo at night and arrives at Hiroshima in the morning.
I can’t sleep on the seat, thus I have never used an overnight bus although I have taken travel many times, and I will never use it, too.
However, if you can sleep on the seat, using an overnight bus is a good option because you can save a lot of money.
Whether to use an overnight bus really depends on each person, thus please consider your body condition before making a decision.
Local Trains
My recommendation:
The last option is taking Tokaido and Sanyo Line from Tokyo to Hiroshima.
As I wrote in the previous blog, I have experienced it before.
Based on my experience, I really do not recommend it to you unless you want to challenge it.
In case of an overnight bus, you do not need to transfer at any bus terminal, thus once you take the bus in Tokyo, you can get to Hiroshima.
However, in case of local trains, you have to transfer about nine times and it takes about 15 hours.
Also, if the train delays somewhere during your trip, there is even a possibility that you cannot arrive at Hiroshima on the day.
During the spring, summer, and winter vacation, Seishun-18 ticket is sold and we were able to go to anywhere in Japan by taking JR local lines at ¥2410, which was of course much cheaper than a bus.
However, the situation changes from this winter because the rule of this ticket changed. Now, you are required to use this ticket for consecutive 5 days at ¥12,040, thus in order to save a lot of money by using this ticket, you have to outbound to Hiroshima and return to Tokyo by only taking local trains totally for 30 hours. This is terrible, thus I do not recommend it to you.
From Tokyo to Okayama (12 hours), it was very interesting thanks to the view from the train, but the last three-hour ride between Okayama and Hiroshima was tired because it was dark outside.
Sum up
This is the all about how to go to Hiroshima from Tokyo.
Basically, the most comfortable transportation is the Shinkansen, but you can buy a cheaper airplane ticket during the sale than the Shinkansen.
However, the airport is located in Mihara City, thus you have to take a bus to go to Hiroshima City, which is not convenient. On the other hand, Hiroshima Station is near the center of Hiroshima City, which is definitely convenient.
You can save a lot of money by taking an overnight bus, but it is difficult for some to sleep, thus I do not recommend.
Local trains take more time than an overnight bus and you have to transfer many times, thus I only recommend it to those who want to experience a very hard trip.
This is the end of this blog. In the next blog, I will write about how to go to Hiroshima from Osaka and Nagoya. Thank you very much for reading.
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