Miyajima aka: 宮島, Itsukushima, 厳島

The island is officially named Itsukushima, but is more commonly known as Miyajima, which is Japanese for ‘shrine-island’.

My friend and I hired a couple of bikes for a few hours and rode along the beach and then through the village. It was a good way to take in the sights, as we only had two hours to spend. Coming back along the beach, I took this photo of an old man fishing off the rockwall.

We got there late so we didn’t have the opportunity to go up to the top of the hill for the legendary view…but we loved this place nonetheless. As the ferry tugged closer to the island, we saw that the tide was coming in so we raced down the shore and were just in time to see the sun setting behind the torii even though we didn’t get to walk out to it. Beautiful. In the new dusk, we walked back to the center of the island and went inside a restaurant to get warm where we ate okonomiyaki. Will and the chum fell asleep on the ferry back but we didn’t seem to mind carrying them up to our rooms and the futons on tatami mats.
A beautiful day…

Such a beautiful shrine! And I don’t agree that the deer are annoying… they were so friendly and adorable!

heed my advice: watch out for the DEER! they will eat ANYTHING, (including your map) and will swarm you if you look like you’re even considering feeding them!
I think the soft-serve ice cream here was better than any other I’d had in Japan, but that could just be me :P
set aside at least a whole day to explore this amazingly beautiful island!
try the sweets the local shops have to offer, I went in autumn so there were lots of freshly-cooked maple-leaf-shaped manju SOOOOO good~

One of the three most beautiful places in Japan, they say. Watch out for those pesky deer, they’ll run off with your momiji-manju if you don’t watch out!

To get to Miyajima, we first took the train from Hiroshima, then the ferry out to the island. Miyajima has a famous shrine built out on the water. The shrine was very beautiful, but the weather had returned to hot mugginess, and Emma was beginning to wilt. I think she had had her fill of shrines and temples. So we had lunch in air conditioning, and then took a long cable car up to the top of the mountain, rather than do it as a three hour hike up. At the top there were decent views – not as good if it wasn’t so hazy, but not bad. There were also Japanese macaques – I have never seen monkeys out in the wild before.

Then we did the 2 or so km hike back down to Miyajima, through the shady trees along side a stream that would periodically cascade in waterfalls.

After some shaved ice in the village to refresh ourselves, we returned to the ferry terminal and took the train back to Hiroshima.

Might as well go twice…
If you go when the tide is in, you get the beautiful postcard view of the Torii standing in the water. If you go when the tide is out, you can actually walk right up to the Torii and touch it. The day I was there a lot of locals were out there in the mudflat digging for clams, and we were able to walk right up and touch the Torii. Granted, it look much more beautiful from afar, but it was a powerful feeling to lay hands on it.
Nice place, i would love to go back someday…
I have also heard that there is a kayak tour in the area that can take you up close, but I have never seen it. Could just be a rumor…

Really nice spot to visit – the deer are a little too friendly though! When I went they tried to eat everything, including some money someone was holding…

They are worth climbing or taking the ride to the top of the mountain.