People in Hiroshima, People to Hiroshima: Hiroshima City View

Hiroshima City View: Hacchou-bori (八丁堀)

Hacchou-bori is the city central in Hiroshima. It is the central for business and commerce.
Comparing to Kamiya-cho, also major for business and commerce and 10min from Hacchou-bori, Hacchou-bori is more local and popular. Several department stores and shops are in there, as well as restaurants.

Hacchou-bori is the keystone for major area in Hiroshima city. It is 10min from Kamiya-cho and Hiroshima Station (広島駅) by Tram "Hiroden" (路面電車 "広電"). Hon-dori and Namiki-dori, 2 major shopping area, are 5min walk from Haccho-bori, and Nagarekawa, amusement area, is also 5min. Tram "Hiroden" Hacchou-bori stop is the most accessible stop for those area.

Hacchou-bori is filled with people, ladies in weekday evening, young business-men on Friday night, and students and young people on holiday. People to buy foodstuffs for dinner, to get dring, to look apparel and just walk. Having festival in city central or baseball game in "MAZDA Zoom-Zoom Stadium Hiroshima", Hacchou-bori shows different color in every single night.

Since no JR station in Hacchou-bori, you need to use tram, bus or taxi to get there. It will take 15-20min by walk from Hiroshima JR station. You can get the route map from Hiroden web site.
http://www.hiroden.co.jp/en/

Golden moment in Hacchou-bori is evening, 5pm-8pm. Especially, at the time of festival, Toukasan in June and Ebessan in November, it gets sooooo crowded. Many open-air stalls are coming. Hacchou-bori corner is the most major meeting place and the hardest place to find.

Blooming Magnolia is very beautiful in early spring. It gets warmer and people, having shopping bags, are walking around for dinner place. Cream-colored flower is calling the spring coming and should make you feel happy for the night.
Fallen season may not be so characteristic than expected, unfortunatelly.

Magnolia bloom in Chuo-dori, central avenue, running through Hacchou-bori.

Now, Hacchou-bori is changing. One of the major department store, Tenmaya, is to be replaced by electronics store.
Hacchou-bori faces the difficulty to keep its characteristic with satisfying consumer's expectation. Many old local stores have closed in a past decade, while many new chain stores have opened. Hacchou-bori was famous for the movie theater 20 years ago, but now, most of them have closed already.

As wrote above, Hacchou-bori is local and popular. People in Hiroshima love this town and are proud of the bustle in Hacchou-bori corner. Hacchou-bori is believed to become more attractive town.
The another major local department store, Fukuya, standing at the Hacchou-bori corner, plays a big role for that.

No major hotel in Hacchou-bori, actually. ANA crown plaza, Tokyu-Inn, Oriental Hotel, Mitsui Garden Hotel are all 10-15min walk from Hacchou-bori.

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Hiroshima City View: Hiroshima Station (広島駅)

Hiroshima Station is of course the "gate" to Hiroshima City. Express railway, Shin-Kan-Sen, and airport bus stops north gate of the station, while the local line stops south gate.

As all people in Hiroshima know, south gate is more flourish than north gate. Historically, the central hirosima city is 1km south and west from the station. You can access easily from south gate by tram, "Hiroden", bus and taxi. 10min is enough for them.

Tram is the most popular mean of transportation in Hiroshima city. You can find the tram gate just 1min walk from south gate of Hiroshima Japan railways "JR" Station.

Large department store is standing just in front of the south gate, while upper floor of the south gate itself is also the shopping area and restaurants.
However, the proportion might be a little less than your expectation comparing to the city central.

Tram gate and the place in front of south gate.
You can pick up tram, bus tax by there. Most of the necessary information are writen in English, too. However, it is very hard to find the taxi driver who can speak English.

Shops and restaurants are in south gate station building. Also, you can find the large department store by acrossing the street.

Nowadays, re-development around the north gate is very active. Large apartment and hotels have been developed. Sheraton hotel is one of the drawing card. Considering the access to city central, I can't recommend, personally, but the re-development should keep going another a few years, followed by old city around south gate of Hiroshima station.

The re-development around Hiroshima station was kicked off with building new baseball stadiam, called "MAZDA Zoom-Zoom Stadium Hiroshima". This new ballpark was opened in 2009. You can enjoy baseball game from Apr to Oct. To get to the ballpark, you just need to walk 5min from Hiroshima Station south gate. On the right, you can see the old market along the way.

MAZDA Zoom-Zoom Stadium Hiroshima. Night game should be more exiting. 5min walking from Hiroshima Station and you can find how to get easily.

Left way is the easier way to go ball park, but you can stop for a moment in old market. The gate to the market is just 2min from Hiroshima station south gate. The name of the market is "Ai-Yu Market", meaning "Love and Friends market".

Old market might be in the scope of re-development. When night falls, only a few people you can find in there. Bus and tram are working around 10pm. Most of the shops close before 8pm. Enjoying in city central is strongly recommended. Public order is not so bad, though.

Main user of the station in weekdays is student followed by business man. The atmosphere of the station is relaxed comparing with other large cities in Japan. You can hear the sound of tram, smell the local meals and find the students sitting around water spout.

After you get out from the south gate, the water spout is just in front of you. You can find the bus gate behind the spout, the tram in the left front and the taxi gate in the left. Taxi has 3 types, large, middle and small, and the rate is slightly different.

Please sit down around the water spout, hear the sound and hazily consider the way to get to the city central with enjoying the atmosphere of Hiroshima city.

Tram is working around 10pm. Taxi is there 24hours. The rate is clearly noticed with the size of taxi.