Day 8 - Miyajima

Our original plan was to travel to Hiroshima in the morning, drop of the bags at the hotel and then take a train down to Miyajima. We were to explore Hiroshima in the afternoon. How plans change!

The green car in the shinkansen was awesome. Just remember to not talk on your phone in the carriage. It is considered bad manners. You are also greeted with a stewardess when you board and presented with a wet towel. Just be warned that Japanese trains tend to not have luggage racks at the end of carriages, your best bet is to shove your suitcase in the gap between the last row of seats and the back of the carriage. On our whole trip, that space was empty.

We got to Hiroshima with no problems and thankfully the station is quite small. So we found our way to the hotel quite easily. We were staying at APA Hotel Hiroshima Ekimae (I later found out that ekimae means close to the station). Back at the station, there are signs in English pointing out which line to take to get to Miyajima. Follow the crowd off the train and go catch the JR ferry (your JR pass will work with this ferry).

First glimpse of the island

And the famous torii gate. Tide was out when we arrived

I'm pretty sure these are oyster farms.

Off the ferry and the first thing you notice is more deer. These ones look less well fed than the Nara deer

There is basically one main street and we followed our nose there to the smell of baked oysters. Miyajima is famous of oysters.

For 200 yen, you get a very large (and hot) oyster.

 

Miyajima is also famous for rice scoops

As our hunger pangs were not quite quelled, more snacks, this time an oyster croquette and more kamoboko, this time with squid.

 The smaller oysters go in the croquette :)

Then it was time for the main attraction at low tide.

It's a big gate and there seems to be a game going on. At low tide, you will see lots of coins under the gate. What people are doing is trying to toss a coin so that it lands on one of the horizontal bars of the gate. I tried with several coins on the floor (and failed) hubby did well though.

To get into the shrine, it costs 300yen. The vermillion paint really stood out, but part of the structure was under renovation when we were there. There are some nice photos of the torii from the shrine and some of the pavillions are nice to see.

You are not allowed to take pictures of the shrine maidens. I got a sneaky one in. Well she was selling amulets and charms! And you can barely see her anyway.

 Looks like Miyajima is a popular place for school excursions. They have little yellow hats, just like in the anime!

We then decided it was a good idea to hike to the top of the island. But since it was a blazing hot day, we required some refreshments. Firstly, purple potato ice cream. This was nice, especially with a dollop of yam or potato.

 Then we tried the specialty of the island, Momiji. Basically cake like with a filling. We chose a charcoal cake with a red bean filling.

 I found it rather dry...or maybe because it was so hot and I was thirsty.

Anyway, we began our hike up. At first it was pleasant and it was in the shade of the fierce sun, but the steps were never ending

 Sure it was shady, but it just increased the humidity. We were sweating bucketloads and I hardly sweat!

Partway up and you see the bay area.

Near the top you come to another shrine. They sell ema on an honesty system. These are little wooden plaques that you write your wishes on and tie them up at the shrine. The priests then burn them up as offerings. I bought a daruma ema because it was just so cute. I wasn't going to leave it behind to get burnt!
See those steps? Yup, you go even higher...

Finally at the top there is an observatory, but there were people in there so we just made do with the scenery on the outside

We realised that we had been walking for hours! Then it was the arduous task of making our way back down. We took a different route and on the way down we caught sight of the torii again. The tide had completely come in on our way up!

We finally made it back down at around sunset (we got sidetracked by other shrines along the way down)
In front of the gate, you will see loads of people with their tripods and cameras trying to catch the perfect photo. I think I got a rather nice one.

We were hungry, but we didn't want to eat on the island lest we miss the last ferry for the night. At this time of the day, the ferry started to leave rather intermittently (not the usual every 15 mins), so we hopped on the ferry back to the main island for our dinner.

We just picked something off the main street (we were tired after walking up and downhill for about 4 hours). We couldn't resist, oyster croquette set for us :)

 Followed by a Miyajima brewed beer

Then we caught the train back to Hiroshima. It was pretty late by then, so no Hiroshima exploration.

Upon check in to our hotel, we were surprised with some free drinks! I think Asahi were doing a promotion? But we got a few cans of this for free. The staff at the hotel speak reasonable English. Have to say though, it looks like this hotel has been recently renovated. The furnishings were top notch. Room was small, but then again we did pay about $50 a night and that is what you should expect for a semi-double room in Japan. Fully recommend this hotel.

The only thing we saw of Hiroshima was the station and a bit of the waterfront! Will have to come back again, as the next day we were off to Kochi island, land of the Tosa people!