Still planning our 2 week Japan trip next March.
I have our Tokyo and Kyoto reservations locked in. Now I need 4-5 nights in Hiroshima, where our son is attending University. I would like to meet some of his friends and see the college, etc. However, I am not having any luck with hotels. Either they are way to expensive or sound kind of dumpy. Any suggestions? We'd like for the three of us to be able to stay together - which sometimes makes it more difficult to find a place.
Any suggestions? I need nice and clean and not too tiny.
Thanks

The Rihga Royal Hotel in Hiroshima is very nice and well located. It is in the city, practically next door to the Carp baseball stadium which is across the steet from the Peace Park. I was able to get a very good internet rate (pre-payment was NOT required) that KimJapan mentioned. I used their Japanese language webpage translated using babelfish.altavista.com

There is also a Granvia Hotel at Hiroshima station. It is very convenient to the shinkansen tracks but less convenient to get to the city because the city is on the other side of the station. It's only a couple of minutes to walk through the station to get to the street car that would take you into the city.

The Granvia is a JR hotel so you can get a discount by showing a JR Pass (if you didn't arrange a better rate in advance).

i saw in the bangkok post that bangkok air will begin service to hiroshima in dec. interesting to see what the fares will be.

That is interesting. travelocity.com shows fares of $960 - same as JAL and Cathay Pacific.
http://www.bangkokair.com/news/?y=20...ticle=20051101
Can't get fares for BKK - HIJ yet at bangkokair.com

That's 960++

Thanks, both are listed in my guide book. The discount with JR rail pass is good to know too, as that is how we are traveling.
I am thinking of flying JAL. We'll fly out of Chicago and they have a direct flight.
Any experience with JAL?

JAL is excellent. I've flown their international first and business classes and domestic coach. They took good care of me when the departure from JFK was late and missed the connection to Sapporo. The business class was great on 2-class 747s between DPS and NRT. The Japan domestic coach flights were fine.

JAL has special domestic fares for visitors who fly to Japan on JAL. It's about $100 per one-way flight.

Hiroshima Eki-mae Green Hotel is good, quite cheap & right opposite the station. I've stayed there twice - don't let the name put you off!!