Hondori Shopping Arcade

Hondori Shopping Street is the covered retail spine of downtown Hiroshima, running 577 meters east to west through the Naka ward of the city. This guide covers the street itself, how to reach it, what to buy, where to eat, and how it compares with the shopping streets on Miyajima.

What Is Hondori Shopping Street In Hiroshima?

Hondori Shopping Street is a covered pedestrian shopping arcade in central Hiroshima measuring 577 meters east to west and 9 to 11 meters wide, with more than 200 stores spread along it, and it attracts an average of 100,000 visitors per day according to the street's own published profile.

The published address for the street association is 8-18 Hondori, Naka-ku, Hiroshima 730-0035, with the phone number 082-248-1518 for the arcade's own office.

The store mix, as the arcade's profile lists it, includes clothing stores, department stores, cafes, restaurants, game arcades, karaoke, souvenir shops and service businesses. The arcade offers barrier-free access and multi-purpose toilets, which the street's accessibility notes describe as smooth, wide pathways usable by wheelchair and stroller.

How Do You Get To Hondori Shopping Street?

From Hiroshima Station, Hiroden tram line 1 runs about 15 minutes to the Hondori stop at a flat fare of 240 yen per adult and 120 yen per child, while lines 2 and 6 run along Aioi-dori to Kamiyacho, near the arcade's north side. The street is also served directly by the city bus Hondori stop and the Astram Line Hondori station.

The Hiroden fare is flat across all lines, including the Miyajima line, so the price does not change with distance; that flat fare has applied since 1 February 2025. For travelers staying near the station, the tram ride is short enough that a return trip for dinner or shopping costs nothing in effort. There is no transfer to work out, no zone map to study, and no fare calculation to do at the door, since the flat fare covers every central ride.

The practical point is that Hondori is a pedestrian through-route, not a gated venue. The city's wider sightseeing network, including the main sights listed on things to do in Hiroshima, sits around this downtown core rather than far from it.

What Can You Buy On Hondori Shopping Street?

On Hondori Shopping Street you can buy clothing and fashion from department stores, enjoy meals, coffee and snacks at cafes and restaurants, and pick up gifts and packaged food from souvenir shops. Beyond shopping, the street offers game arcades and karaoke for evening entertainment, plus service businesses such as pharmacies and banks. Individual shop lineups change, and the arcade's guidance is to contact each store directly for holidays and hours.

The arcade's year-round status means there is no season when the street itself closes, though the arcade's profile notes that individual store holidays vary and that stores should be contacted for details. For visitors pairing a city stop with the island, Miyajima's own Omotesando shopping street carries a different, craft-led selection that complements rather than repeats Hondori's.

A practical note on structure: Hondori is straight, covered and flat, which makes it usable in the rain and in the heat of a Hiroshima summer, when the Japan Meteorological Agency station normals for Hiroshima show an average daily high of about 32.8 °C in August. The roof is the reason the street functions in every month; July, with 279.8 mm of rain on average in the normals, does not stop a shopping plan here. In winter the same normals put the average daily low near 2.0 °C in January, and the covered street keeps the wind off a walk between shops.

Is Hondori Free To Enter And When Is It Open?

Hondori Shopping Street has no entry fee and is open as a pedestrian street all year round, with no seasonal closure of the arcade itself; the published guidance is that individual stores set their own hours and holidays, so opening times belong to each shop rather than to the street. The arcade's own profile states it is open all year round, and its accessibility notes confirm the walkway is a covered public street rather than a gated space.

The street's published daily average of 100,000 people describes a working commercial street rather than a gated attraction with opening and closing ceremonies.

Where Do You Eat On And Around Hondori?

The named food anchor at the eastern end of Hondori is Okonomimura, a dedicated building of okonomiyaki restaurants that sits just south of the eastern end of the arcade, and the street itself lists cafes, restaurants and izakaya among its more than 200 businesses, along with ramen shops and international cuisine options on and just off the covered street. Okonomiyaki, the layered Hiroshima savoury pancake, is the dish the district is organized around, and Okonomimura concentrates many separate okonomiyaki counters under one roof.

The Okonomimura building is the single most useful eating address for a first-time visitor in this district, because it removes the choice problem: many counters, one location, at the arcade's eastern end. A fuller treatment of the city's food, from oysters to anago-meshi, belongs to the island and downtown food pages rather than this one.

For visitors who want the food of the city explained while eating it, guided food and drink walks are among the products offered on the site. A guided evening can also pair naturally with a daytime guided day: the UNESCO Sites 1-Day Tour covers the Peace Memorial Park and Miyajima; Check availability before locking in an evening food plan, since the day tours run long.

To taste your way through the evening with a local guide, book a nighttime food tour here.

How Does Hondori Compare With Miyajima's Omotesando?

Hondori is the larger of the two arcades: 577 meters long with more than 200 stores in central Hiroshima, while Miyajima's Omotesando shopping street measures about 350 meters and runs from Miyajima Pier toward Itsukushima Shrine; both are covered, both are free to walk at any time, and they differ mainly in setting, with Hondori an urban retail street and Omotesando a souvenir and food lane on an island.

The two streets serve different moments of a Hiroshima trip. Hondori is the city's everyday shopping and eating core, reached by tram in minutes from the station. Omotesando is the first street a visitor walks after the 10-minute ferry from Miyajimaguchi, lined with momiji manju vendors, grilled oyster stalls, souvenir shops and restaurants, and its shops generally open around 10:00 and close around 17:00, with popular food items often selling out earlier. Machiya Street, one block uphill and parallel, adds traditional townhouse architecture from the island's earlier prosperity.

A visitor with two half-days can do both without strain: Hondori slots between the Peace Memorial Park and the evening, and Omotesando slots between the ferry and Itsukushima Shrine. The Itsukushima Shrine itself, at 300 yen adult admission, sits at the far end of Omotesando, and the tide, not the clock, decides how the Great Torii looks on any given crossing. The Miyajima Visitor Tax of 100 yen is charged separately on entering the island, so island shopping carries a small fixed cost that downtown does not.

How Does Hiroshima's Weather Affect A Visit To Hondori?

The Japan Meteorological Agency station normals for Hiroshima, 1991 to 2020, show a climate with hot humid summers, mild winters and rain in every month, and the covered roof of Hondori is what keeps the street usable through all of it: the arcade gives shelter in a July that averages 279.8 mm of rain and shade in an August that averages a daily high of about 32.8 C. No month in the normals closes the street, because the street has no season.

The useful planning figures are the monthly averages. January averages 46.2 mm of rain and a daily low of about 2.0 C. July carries the highest monthly rain total at 279.8 mm, and August the highest average daily high at about 32.8 C. October and November bring the averages down again, to about 23.7 °C and 17.7 °C daily highs respectively. What this means for the arcade is simple: the roof converts the warmest months, rain and all, from a problem into a non-event, and the barrier-free, flat floor keeps the walk steady in any season.

The same logic applies to the rest of a downtown day. The Peace Memorial Park is largely open ground, so a wet-weather plan that puts the park in a dry window and Hondori in a wet one uses the arcade for what its roof is physically there to do. The trams that serve the Hondori stop also deliver shelter-to-shelter movement across the center, which is the reason a rain plan in this city rarely needs to cancel anything.

What Else Sits Within Easy Reach Of Hondori?

Hondori works as the shopping and eating leg of a walking day that can take in Peace Memorial Park, the free A-Bomb Dome, the Peace Memorial Museum at 200 yen adult, Shukkeien garden at 350 yen adult, Hiroshima Castle grounds, whose keep has been closed to visitors since 22 March 2026, and Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima, reached by ferry, with 300 yen adult admission.

The castle point deserves emphasis because older guides say otherwise: the keep at Hiroshima Castle has been closed to visitors since 22 March 2026, and a visit there is now an exterior and grounds experience. The Peace Memorial Park and the museum beside it remain the city's center of gravity, and the etiquette there is quiet, respectful conduct, as the official pages state.

Is Hondori Shopping Street Worth A Visit?

Yes, for what it is: a free, covered, year-round retail street with more than 200 stores, direct tram access and Okonomimura at its eastern end, Hondori functions as the practical heart of downtown Hiroshima, and its own profile of 100,000 visitors per day describes a street that carries the city's everyday commerce rather than a tourist attraction with a ticket.

For the island half of the trip, Miyajima's Omotesando and Machiya streets carry the craft and souvenir selection that downtown does not attempt.

Planning around the arcade is therefore simple. Arrive by tram at the Hondori stop, walk the 577 meters end to end, eat at or near Okonomimura, and fold the arcade into the gaps between the Peace Memorial Park in the morning and the island in the afternoon. Visitors building a full regional plan can extend the same logic to the Saijo sake brewery street in Higashi-Hiroshima, where the breweries' own pages list tasting hours, or to a guided day that handles the city and island in one run. This Hiroshima Travel Guide keeps the full sight list, including every address above, in its central index.

Common Questions About Hondori Shopping Arcade