Japan · stop
The city that asks you to put the camera down
You come out of the station into ordinary street trees and a tram that looks like it has somewhere kinder to be. Hiroshima does not perform tragedy for you. It lets you arrive, and then it tells the truth once, clearly.
The morning
Peace Memorial Park and Museum first, while you still have a mind. Read. Sit. Do not turn the dome into a pose. If you need a rule: if you would not do it at a funeral, do not do it here.
The value is not “I went.” The value is that you let the place change the speed of your voice.
The afternoon ferry
Miyajima (Itsukushima) is the exhale — torii in the tide, a mountain if your knees still like you, momiji manju because sugar is allowed after hard history. Watch the clock; the last ferry is not a metaphor.
Sleep
One night in Hiroshima beats a day-trip that turns the museum into a layover. Eat okonomiyaki the Hiroshima way (layered, not Osaka-flipped) and do not make it a personality contest.
Rail: often a reason a pass might start to make sense — still run the 2026 math. Calendar: events.