Hakone or Hiroshima?

Neither place is built for swimming. From Hakone the sea means a trip down the mountain. The shore at Odawara is steep and pebbly, so the realistic choice is the sheltered sand at Atami, under an hour away. You cannot swim in Lake Ashi.

Hiroshima makes a swim easier to fit in. A ferry to Miyajima, Ninoshima or Etajima reaches small sandy beaches on the calm Inland Sea, which works as an extra on a summer island day. The season is short, though, and jellyfish arrive towards its end.

Hakone's best meal is the one served at your inn. At a good ryokan the kaiseki dinner of seasonal courses, with river fish and local tofu, is very fine. Beyond that there are soba shops, tofu specialists and Owakudani's black eggs, and most places are shut by early evening.

Hiroshima gives you far more to explore. Okonomiyaki is layered on griddles in whole buildings of counter stalls, oysters from the bay are at their best in winter, and the izakaya serve fish from the Inland Sea. The breweries of Saijo are a short train ride away for sake tastings.

Hakone's culture is mostly art set in the landscape. There is sculpture on the hillside lawns of the Open-Air Museum, Impressionist painting at the Pola in the beech forest, and stretches of the Tokaido with its rebuilt checkpoint and Hakone Shrine's torii standing in the lake. It is pleasant and unhurried, but the sights are scattered.

Hiroshima carries more weight. The A-Bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Museum make a visit few people forget, and Shukkeien garden and the moated castle grounds fill out a stay. Expect a more serious, thoughtful day than anything in Hakone.

Hakone has essentially no nightlife. Evenings are dinner at the inn, a final soak and an early night, and only a few izakaya in Yumoto stay open later. Hiroshima's Nagarekawa is a grid of buildings stacked with small bars, karaoke boxes and izakaya, busy past midnight and best explored slowly, from one counter bar to the next. The scene is local and modest, but it is a real night out.

Hakone's landscape is the stronger draw. You stay inside a volcanic caldera, with sulphur vents at Owakudani, Lake Ashi on the crater floor and Fuji behind it on clear days. Ridge walks lead to Mount Kintoki, and quiet paths run through the Sengokuhara pampas grass, although mist often hides the view.

Hiroshima's nature is gentler and closer to the water. Tree-lined rivers run through the city, and beyond them lie the forested islands of the Inland Sea, the trails up Mount Misen on Miyajima and the Sandankyo Gorge walk inland.

Both make excellent bases, but they point in different directions. From Hakone the trips run east to Kamakura's Great Buddha and Zen temples, to Yokohama and, by express, to Tokyo. To the south lie Izu and Atami, and over the ridge are the Fuji lakes.

Hiroshima's day trips lean on the sea and the shinkansen. Choices include Miyajima's floating torii, Iwakuni's arched bridge, the old ports of Onomichi and Tomonoura and rabbit-filled Okunoshima. Himeji Castle and Kurashiki are about an hour away.

Both work well for a few days with children, in different ways. In Hakone the transport is the fun: the zigzag railway, the ropeway over the steaming vents and the pirate ship on Lake Ashi, with seal shows and an onsen theme park as well. Formal inns, nude communal baths and steep paths can make it harder going.

Hiroshima is easier day to day, with flat pavements, simple trams and welcoming restaurants. Children can feed the deer on Miyajima, visit Asa Zoo or spend an evening at the baseball. Parents should think about how much of the Peace Memorial Museum young children see.

Hakone's loop of mountain railway, cable car, ropeway, boat and bus is part of the sightseeing, all on one pass. It is slow, though, and weekend queues and traffic eat into the day. Hiroshima is simpler: the main sights sit within walking distance in a flat centre, and trams link the station, the Peace Park and the Miyajima ferry. JR trains and the shinkansen cover the longer trips.

Hakone's one real find is yosegi-zaiku, the wooden marquetry puzzle boxes and trays made around Hatajuku. Besides that there are Yumoto's sweets and souvenirs and the museum shops, and for fashion you have to take the bus to the Gotemba outlets. Hiroshima offers more browsing, with the Hondori arcade, department stores and station food halls. To take home there are brushes from Kumano, rice paddles from Miyajima and sake from Saijo.

Hakone is the dearer stay. People come for a ryokan night with dinner and a hot-spring bath, and at the better inns with private outdoor baths the cost adds up quickly, especially at weekends and in autumn. Simple inns in Yumoto and public bathhouses keep it down.

Hiroshima is easier on a budget. Business hotels are plentiful, okonomiyaki and noodles are cheap and filling, and the Peace Park is free to walk. The costs that mount up are shinkansen tickets for day trips and evenings of oysters and sake.

Hakone has no theatre or concert hall, so you are left with the odd museum concert or a performance laid on at an inn. Hiroshima has its own kagura, a Shinto dance-drama of masks, demons and drumming that is staged in the evenings for visitors. It also has a symphony orchestra and small live houses for local bands. Neither is a place to travel to for performances, but in Hiroshima a show is easy to fit into an evening.

Here Hakone is in a different league. Its seventeen hot-spring areas run from riverside Yumoto to the milky sulphur water of Sengokuhara, with outdoor baths under maples, private balcony baths and day-bathhouses in the woods. The pace is slow, with misty mornings and early nights.

Hiroshima has no hot springs of its own. Relaxing there means a neighbourhood sento, a hotel's top-floor bath or a ryokan night on Miyajima, and true onsen are about an hour out. The riverside walks are calm, but they are not a reason to go.