If you hold a Japan Rail Pass, and you wish to travel overnight from Tokyo (or any other distant city), you may want to split up your journey, stopping at an intermediate destination en-route in order to sleep somewhere. The cost incurred will only be for the hotel room; the Rail Pass covers your transportation. This is a good way to travel overnight, especially if you are able to find cheap accomodations, such as a business hotel. Yes, it may be a little hectic, and it might require some research, but this method carries two significant advantages: location and money. You will more than likely find good accomodations very close to a main train station in a smaller city, compared to a big city such as Tokyo, and it will more than likely be cheaper than hotels found in a big city. You could use the money you save to forward some of your luggage to Hiroshima using a luggage delivery service and take an overnight bag with you, which will make the journey easier.
As of March 2011, here is one way you could go about this from Tokyo: at 7 PM, take the Hikari train for a 4-hour ride to Himeji. Once there you can take a rest at Himeji's which costs as low as �5600 for a single room. At 6:55 AM the next morning, board the first Hikari Rail Star of the day and you will be in Hiroshima by 8:00 AM. Green Car Rail Pass users can take the 7:20 AM Sakura for access to Green Car seating and be in Hiroshima by 8:25 AM. This trip takes longer than taking the overnight train and shinkansen connection as described above, but it is cheaper; you only have to pay for the hotel room, complete with your own toilet and shower.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Hiroshima
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Hiroshima - updated May 2024
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Hiroshima Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
