Hiroshima or Tokyo?

Neither city has a beach in town worth swimming from, since both waterfronts are port and reclaimed land, but Tokyo has the better option within reach. An hour by train brings you to the Shonan coast, where Kamakura's Yuigahama, Zushi and Enoshima offer long stretches of dark volcanic sand, though summer weekends are packed.

Hiroshima's swimming means a ferry to Miyajima, Ninoshima or Etajima, or the shallow strands towards Kure. The water is calm and sheltered, which suits small children, but the beaches are small and jellyfish arrive late in the season.

Hiroshima eats well within a narrow range: layered okonomiyaki off the griddle, Inland Sea oysters in winter, conger eel on rice and the sake breweries of Saijo a short train ride away. It is honest, careful cooking, but with little fine dining and a thin choice of foreign cuisines.

Tokyo is on another scale. It has more Michelin stars than any other city, single-dish specialists that have perfected their craft over decades, the Tsukiji outer market and the depachika food halls, and French and Italian cooking that would hold their own in Paris or Rome. A week of eating in Tokyo never repeats itself.

Hiroshima's culture is concentrated in one profound place. The A-Bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Museum face the atomic bombing of 1945 more directly than anywhere else, and Shukkeien and the castle grounds round out two or three days. Little older architecture survived.

Tokyo also lost much of its past, to a great earthquake and then to wartime bombing, but it has far more to see. Senso-ji, Meiji Jingu and the Imperial Palace moats are matched by Ueno's museums, above all the Tokyo National Museum, so a culture-minded visitor can stay busy for a week or more.

Nagarekawa is a pleasant place for a slow evening, with an izakaya and then a small counter bar where the owner pours sake, but the scene is local and fairly modest. Tokyo's night goes much further. Golden Gai, Omoide Yokocho and whole buildings full of themed bars give you endless choice, and the clubs in Shibuya and Roppongi run until the first trains of the morning.

Tokyo has a slight edge, mainly because its trains reach real mountains: Mount Takao in about an hour, the Okutama gorges, and Hakone and the Fuji Five Lakes for views of Fuji.

Hiroshima's landscape is gentler and closer to the water. It has river banks through a delta city, the forested islands of the Inland Sea, the climb up Mount Misen on Miyajima, and Sandankyo Gorge in autumn colour. Cyclists have the Shimanami Kaido across the islands to Shikoku.

Both cities make excellent bases, and the difference is in what lies around them. From Hiroshima the trips are maritime: Miyajima's shrine by ferry, the old ports of Tomonoura and Onomichi, Okunoshima's rabbits, with Himeji Castle and Kurashiki a shinkansen hop away.

Tokyo's day trips are bigger, more famous names inland and along the coast: Kamakura's Great Buddha, the Toshogu shrine at Nikko, hot springs in Hakone and Yokohama's harbour.

Tokyo is one of the easiest big cities anywhere to travel with children. Disneyland and DisneySea, Miraikan, the Ghibli Museum and several aquariums can fill a week, and stations with lifts, baby rooms and spotless toilets make each day easy.

Hiroshima is just as safe and clean, and feeding the deer on Miyajima or meeting Okunoshima's rabbits goes down well. But there is no theme park or large aquarium nearby, and parents need to decide how much of the Peace Memorial Museum's graphic material young children should see.

Hiroshima's centre is compact enough to walk, with the Peace Park, Hondori, the castle and Shukkeien all close together, and Japan's largest tram network fills the gaps, though the trams are slow when the streets are busy.

Tokyo is in a different league: the densest rail network in the world, trains to the minute, English signs throughout, and almost every sight a short walk from a station. Its drawbacks are the giant interchange stations and the crush at rush hour.

Hiroshima's shopping is essentially one long covered arcade, Hondori, with department stores and the national chains, and it is pleasant rather than exciting. The things worth carrying home are crafts and local produce: Kumano make-up brushes, Miyajima rice paddles and Saijo sake.

Tokyo gives a shopper whole districts, each with its own character. Ginza has the luxury houses, Omotesando the architect-designed flagships, Shimokitazawa and Harajuku vintage clothing, Kappabashi kitchen knives and Akihabara electronics. A keen shopper could spend the whole trip here.

Both cities feed you cheaply and well, so the difference lies mostly in the bed. Hiroshima's business hotels are plentiful and fairly priced and rarely see peak-season extremes, which makes it the easier city on the budget. The costs that build up are shinkansen tickets for day trips and a night on Miyajima.

Tokyo's rooms are small and not cheap in the central districts, and prices climb sharply in cherry-blossom season and Golden Week. Taxis, cocktail bars and fine dinners add up quickly too.

Hiroshima's one distinctive show is kagura, a masked Shinto dance-drama with drumming and demons, staged regularly for visitors and at village shrines in autumn. Beyond that, the programme is a regional one.

Tokyo has kabuki at the Kabuki-za, with single-act tickets for newcomers, plus Noh, the Takarazuka Revue, opera and ballet at the New National Theatre, and orchestras in halls such as Suntory Hall. Jazz bars and the live houses of Koenji and Shimokitazawa have music every night.

Hiroshima has no hot springs of its own, so bathing means sento, super-sento or a drive of an hour to a spa village. Its real calm comes from the slow pace, the riverside walks and a ryokan night on Miyajima once the day-trippers have gone.

Tokyo offers more. Hundreds of sento, some fed by dark mineral spring water, large bathing complexes with saunas, and Hakone's onsen inns about ninety minutes away. In both cities, check whether tattoos are allowed.