Hiroshima or Kobe?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Kobe makes a swim easier. Suma's long sand is about fifteen minutes from the centre by train, with lifeguards in midsummer and an aquarium next to it.

From Hiroshima a swim means a ferry to Miyajima, Ninoshima or Etajima, or a drive towards Kure. The water is sheltered and the island setting is prettier, but it takes most of a day and the beaches are small.

Kobe has the wider table, shaped by its past as a treaty port: Kobe beef at teppanyaki counters, old bakeries and coffee houses in Motomachi and Kitano, Chinatown's steamed buns and the Nada breweries along the shore.

Hiroshima eats more narrowly but with real character. Layered okonomiyaki comes straight off the griddle in whole buildings of stalls, and the bay's oysters are at their best in winter. Both have serious sake, Saijo for Hiroshima and Nada for Kobe, though Nada is the closer of the two.

Nothing in Kobe compares with the Peace Memorial Park. The A-Bomb Dome and the museum across the river face the bombing of 6 August 1945 directly. This is not a museum to rush, and most visitors have little appetite for much else that day. Later, Shukkeien's Edo-period garden and the castle's original stone walls and moats are quieter ways to finish.

Kobe's sights tell a gentler story of foreign trade: the Western merchant houses of Kitano, the ancient Ikuta Shrine among the shops, and Tadao Ando's art museum on the bay. Its earthquake museum is moving, but overall the city is a pleasant visit rather than an essential one.

Hiroshima has the busier nights. Nagarekawa is the biggest entertainment district in its region, a grid of tiny bars, izakaya and karaoke that stays full past midnight, especially after a home baseball game.

Kobe's Sannomiya lanes are quieter and suit whisky and cocktail bars after dinner. For dancing and late, loud nights, people take the train twenty minutes to Osaka.

Kobe has real mountains on its doorstep. Trails climb from Shin-Kobe station past the Nunobiki waterfalls, ropeways rise to Mount Rokko and Mount Maya, and keen walkers can follow the whole ridge or scramble over the Suma Alps.

Hiroshima's landscape is the sea rather than the hills. Its best outdoor days are on the forested islands of the Inland Sea: the trails up Mount Misen on Miyajima, the cycling route across the Shimanami Kaido bridges, and the riverside walk through Sandankyo Gorge further inland.

Both are excellent bases, but Kobe sits on the busier rail corridor. Himeji Castle is under an hour west, Osaka twenty minutes east, and Kyoto and Nara are easy days out, so the great temple cities are all within reach.

Hiroshima's list is quieter and more coastal: Miyajima, the Kintaikyo bridge at Iwakuni, the hillside temples of Onomichi and the rabbit island of Okunoshima. Himeji and Kurashiki are reachable from either city, and Kobe can even reach Miyajima in a long day.

Kobe is better set up for children. It has Oji Zoo near the centre, a large aquarium at Suma, an indoor animal park on Port Island, and the Ferris wheel and open space of Harborland, with Universal Studios about an hour away.

Hiroshima is just as safe and easy, and children love the Miyajima deer, the Okunoshima rabbits and a noisy evening at the baseball. But it has no aquarium or theme park nearby, and parents of young children need to think carefully about how much of the Peace Memorial Museum to show them.

Kobe is the simpler city to move through. Its long, narrow shape means parallel rail lines run east to west, and JR, private lines, the subway and the driverless Port Liner all take one IC card.

Hiroshima's flat centre is easy on foot, and Japan's largest tram network connects the station, the Peace Park and the Miyajima ferry, though the trams slow down at busy times. Neither city needs a car.

Around Hiroshima's Hondori arcade the shopping is everyday: department stores, the national chains, and boxes of momiji manju at the station. The best things to take home are crafts, such as Kumano makeup brushes and Miyajima rice paddles, along with Saijo sake and local lemon products.

Kobe dresses up a little more. The old Daimaru store anchors the former foreign settlement, with luxury boutiques in the stone buildings around it and small fashion shops along Tor Road. Its own specialities are pearls and leather shoes from Nagata. Keen shoppers there often still add a day in Osaka.

The two cost about the same, with fairly priced business hotels and cheap everyday food in both. The difference is where the bill climbs: in Kobe it is a Kobe beef teppanyaki dinner and a night at an Arima ryokan, in Hiroshima it is oysters, sake and a hotel on Miyajima.

Kobe has more for an evening out. It calls itself the birthplace of Japanese jazz, has small clubs with resident trios around Sannomiya and Kitano, and has a strong concert hall in nearby Nishinomiya. The Takarazuka Revue plays in its home town about forty minutes away.

Hiroshima's draw is kagura, the masked, drum-driven Shinto dance-drama, which has regular evening performances staged for visitors. Beyond that its programme is regional.

Kobe wins clearly, because Arima Onsen lies within the city, about half an hour away over Mount Rokko. Its rust-coloured iron water and clear carbonated springs are famous across Japan, and an afternoon soak or a night with a kaiseki dinner is easy to arrange.

Hiroshima has no hot springs of its own. Rest there means a sento or a hotel's rooftop bath, an hour's trip to a spa village, or a quiet ryokan night on Miyajima once the day visitors have left.