Summer Evening of Prayer and Peace in Hiroshima
Jul 30, 2018 By Matt Mangham
Let’s say you arrive in Hiroshima for the August 6th Peace Memorial Ceremony a day early. You don’t feel like sitting around the hotel room watching TV, but what feels right to do the night before attending the anniversary of the A-Bombing of this lovely little city. Anyway, it’s Sunday...[ Click to read more ]
Hiroshima International Animation Festival 2018
By Matt Mangham
Both of my daughters have attended and enjoyed this wonderful local film festival for their entire lives. If you’re living in Hiroshima, or are lucky enough to be passing through town between the August 23 and 27, you have to make time in your schedule to drop by, if only...[ Click to read more ]
August 6th, Anniversary of the Bombing of Hiroshima
By Matt Mangham
The entire world knows what happened in Hiroshima on the morning of August 6th, 1945. Today, the events that occurred on that date and in the following days are one of the main reasons that Hiroshima receives such a disproportionately high number (for a city its size) of visitors. You...[ Click to read more ]
Hiroshima Port Dream Fireworks
Jun 26, 2018 By Matt Mangham
Summer in Japan just doesn’t quite work without taking in at least one fireworks show. Hiroshima has several, but the two big crowd pleasers are the Miyajima show in August, and what is called the Yumehanabi, or “Dream Fireworks” from Hiroshima Port in the Ujina district. Formerly held directly in...[ Click to read more ]
Rice Planting Events in Hiroshima
May 29, 2018 By Matt Mangham
I always recommend venturing out of the city if you can. Rural Hiroshima Prefecture is a knockout, and this is a wonderful time of year. The spring foliage still shows its fresh, pale green on the hills, and the worst of the summer heat is weeks away. Most of the...[ Click to read more ]
Hiroshima’s Toukasan Festival
By Matt Mangham
For four hundred years, Hiroshima’s Toukasan festival has marked the arrival of summer for locals. Stretching over three days on the first weekend in June, the festival is officially in honor of Touka Daimyoujin, a deity enshrined at Enryu-ji, a temple one block north of Peace Boulevard on Chuo-dori. Also...[ Click to read more ]
English Language Kagura Performances in Hiroshima
Apr 25, 2018 By Matt Mangham
There are a number of styles of dance and performance around Japan that go by the name of "kagura," but in western Japan the word almost invariably refers to the lively, narrative performances centered on Shimane prefecture’s famous Izumo Shrine. Long popular throughout the Chugoku region (Hiroshima, Shimane, Yamaguchi, Okayama...[ Click to read more ]
Hiroshima Flower Festival 2018
By Matt Mangham
If you’re looking for something to do in Hiroshima over Golden Week, why not consider dropping by the 42nd annual Hiroshima Flower Festival? Each year Hiroshima’s Peace Boulevard is closed to traffic and, for the three days of the festival, is used for parades, dancing, music and food stalls to...[ Click to read more ]
Hiroshima’s Miroku no Sato Amusement Park
By Matt Mangham
Tokyo has Disneyland, Osaka has Universal Studios. Hiroshima prefecture has, well, Miroku no Sato. Despite feeling somewhat like an abandoned theme park that people haven’t quite abandoned yet, Miroku no Sato (the name means Village of the Future Buddha) is a lot of fun, and a bargain to boot. It’s...[ Click to read more ]
Island Hopping on the Seto Inland Sea near Hiroshima
Mar 26, 2018 By Matt Mangham
If you find yourself in Hiroshima or the surrounding area for any length of time, you really should set aside a day or two to explore the Seto Inland Sea. It’s not uncommon for people to live in the city for years, within sight of the Inland Sea and its...[ Click to read more ]
