Be sure to read the Special Notes further down this page for important requirements and restriction.

Your journey begins at the pier where you'll board your motorcoach and embark on a narrated drive of the city en route to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and its museum.

Upon arrival to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, you'll see brightly-colored paper cranes everywhere. Origami or paper-folding is a traditional Japanese craft, but it has become a symbol of peace. Today, paper cranes are folded as a wish for peace in many countries around the world. This connection between paper cranes and world peace stems from a young girl named Sadako Sasaki, who died of leukemia as a result from the atomic bomb.

The monument in her honor is called the Children's Peace Monument. It was built with funds donated from people all over Japan. The story goes that Sadako was exposed at age two to the atomic bomb's radiation and thus developed leukemia at age 11. She hoped that folding paper cranes would help cure her, so she kept making paper cranes up until her death, eight months later, on October 25, 1955. Today, it is estimated that approximately 10 million cranes are brought to the Children's Peace Monument each year in the name of world peace.

Tour the Peace Memorial Museum. See exhibits, videos and items that survived the bombing. Learn about the scope of destruction and extent of the bombing zone. See haunting images of shadows etched into buildings and sidewalks.

You'll also view the Atomic Bomb Dome. The old Industry Promotion Hall was one of the few buildings near Ground Zero to survive the blast, although its dome was vaporized. Renamed, its gutted walls and skeletal dome structure stand as mute icons and powerful symbols of a weapon's destructive force. Hopefully, never to be used again.

Continue on to Shukkeien Gardens, a name that translates in Japanese to "shrink scenery gardens." Modeled after a landscape in Shukkeien, Xihu (West Lake) in Hangzhou, China, a feudal lord named Asano had the gardens built in 1620. It features stunning miniature landscapes of forests, valleys and mountains. Stroll through the garden grounds on pathways and over bridges, winding your way to a pond with an oasis of teahouses and waterfalls.

From here, you'll head back to the pier. Relax and sit back as you reflect on a full day of events on your ride back to the ship.