Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan
Hiroshima is an underrated city. Few tourists stay long enough to truly experience the city. If you have time, spend an extra day exploring Hiroshima’s lively nightlife, incredible shopping and natural beauty. Visiting the most beautiful parks and gardens in Hiroshima makes for a great way to spend a day.
Shukkei-en Garden
By far Hiroshima’s most famous and oldest garden in Hiroshima, Shukkei-en was built in the Edo era in Japan, in the year 1620. In English, the name means “shrunken scenery garden,” a fitting name for this unique and scenic spot. The garden depicts all sorts of natural landscapes found throughout Japan, including valleys, mountains and forests. The garden is a traditional Japanese one, complete with tea houses around a main pond. A path winds around the pond at the center of the garden, allowing visitors an easy route to see all the micro-sceneries. The park is located about 15 minutes walking from Hiroshima Station.
Peace Memorial Park
The majority of tourists who visit Hiroshima come for one reason – to see the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum that commemorates the fatal atomic bombing during World War II that destroyed the city. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park encompasses 120,000 square meters. The famous and serious Peace Memorial Museum is the centerpiece of the park and most frequented site within it. Exploring the park itself is also rewarding. Before the bomb, the area was the political and commercial center of the city. Today, the park itself commemorates the events that happened and the lives that were lost.
Hiroshima City Asa Zoological Park
Not quite a park as we would normally interpret it, the Hiroshima City Asa Zoological Park is a zoo. Opened in 1971, this zoo is about 49.6 hectares and has more than 170 varieties of animals. A great place to take kids and the whole family, the zoo has lions, giraffes, pandas, Japanese giant salamanders and macaws, among other animals. The zoo has volunteers who talk to visitors about the animals in detail. In summers, the zoo has a program called Night Safari that is popular with kids.
– Contributed by Cyndi Waite
Most Beautiful Parks and Gardens in Hiroshima from Japan Things to Do
