Hondori Shopping Arcade

Hondori is the connective tissue between the somber west end of the city (Peace Park, Atomic Bomb Dome) and the loud east-of-centre nightlife (Nagarekawa, Ebisucho). It’s covered, so it’s the obvious pivot when it rains, and on a hot summer afternoon it’s the only sane way to walk between Peace Park and Hiroshima Station’s neighbourhood without melting.

A handful of long-standing shops survived the war or rebuilt on the same lots — Okumoto Hardware (founded 1891, bombed out, rebuilt) is one — and there are good ramen, tsukemen, and okonomiyaki places hidden in the alleys branching off. The Hondori streetcar stop sits at the western end, which makes it a sensible group meeting point.

The arcade runs approximately 500 meters from near the Peace Boulevard (Heiwa Odori) in the west to the Yagenbori entertainment and nightlife district in the east, forming the commercial core of central Hiroshima. Three major department stores — including Fukuya and Sogo — anchor the eastern end and spill into Hacchobori. It is packed with a range of shops from comic book stores to bakeries; the wide covered walkway is less claustrophobic than many Japanese arcade streets.

Okonomimura, the dedicated okonomiyaki building, sits a stone’s throw from Hondori’s eastern end, making it a natural dinner stop after a day at the peace sites. Best accessed from Hacchobori tram stop. The downtown area is five minutes by tram from Hiroshima Station on lines 1, 2, or 6, or a 20-minute walk west. The arcade itself is free to walk through at any time, though shops wind down by 8 p.m. and the eastern department stores close around 8:30.

The Nagarekawa district, directly south of the arcade’s eastern end, is where the city’s bar and izakaya scene concentrates after dark — narrow lanes, red lanterns, standing bars, late-night ramen. This is the area to head once Hondori closes down. From the tram stop it takes about 10 minutes on foot to reach the core of the Nagarekawa drinking streets.