Akane
I would appreciate some advice in arranging my day trip to Hiroshima.
I was planning to visit Hiroshima for one day. I plan to use my JR pass to get to Hiroshima from Kyoto and back. There is a guided tour by japanican/JTB Sunrise which starts and ends at Hiroshima station (for JPY 15000). This covers visit to Miyajima, Itsukushima Shrine (120 min) with Ferry and visit to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park & Museum/atomic dome (100 min).
Is this tour worth the money? Or am I better off going around by myself and spending my time more leisurely at these places? Will it be difficult to go by myself?
Akane
The JR pass covers your fee from Kyoto to Hiroshima, and also to Miyajimaguchi station from Hiroshima station. It also covers the fee for the JR Ferry to Miyajima. So if you have the JR Pass, you should definitely go by yourself.
On the way back to Hiroshima from Miyajimaguchi, you can get off at Yokogawacho station and walk to the Atomic dome. Entry to Peace museum is JPY 50, entry to Itsukushima Shrine is JPY 300. If you want to save time, you can just take a taxi from the station to the Atomic dome.