Drive from Hiroshima
After spending a full day and a half in Hiroshima, it was time to venture a little farther outside the city. About 20 minutes away from our hotel located in the center of Hiroshima, lies a ferry station that takes travelers to the island of Itsukushima. The island is more commonly called Miyajima (宮島) meaning “Shinto Shrine Island”. The process to get our tickets for the ferry was super easy and only cost 360 yen (~$3.00) each. Interestingly, this is one of the only ferries that is included if you have the Japan Rail Pass. The ferry came in expedient 10-15 minute intervals and we only had to wait maybe 5 minutes to board after getting our tickets.
Arrival on Miyajima
The ferry ride over took about 10 minutes and provided a beautiful view to the approaching island. The boat could have fit probably 50 or more people and taken take several cars at once as well. On our specific ferry trip, there were only maybe 10 or 15 people with us because of the lack of foreign travelers in Japan during the pandemic. This meant that for our whole time in Miyajima, and Japan in general, it wasn’t very crowded. This made the trip all the more enjoyable for us personally. On the flipside, I did notice that many of the local businesses, at both Miyajima and the ones we saw earlier near Kumamoto Castle, were struggling for customers and it was a bit disheartening to see.
Local Deer of Miyajima
After exiting the ferry, we set off to explore. The first thing we noticed outside the ferry terminal were some informational signs. One had a map and another talked about not feeding the local deer. As strange as it was to see, the island is home to roaming wild deer. That fact has to be one of best parts about Miyajima. These deer are very used to people and will just hang around in town, walking and laying throughout the streets and sidewalks. We saw a group of them almost right after reading the sign not to feed them.
Omiyage, Food Stalls, and Ryokans
Looking at the map, we were honestly surprised at the number of things we could do and see in such a small area. There were half-a-dozen or so shrines, temples and pagodas to admire. The streets were lined with aesthetically beautiful shops, restaurants and ryokans (traditional Japanese inns). On the far right side of the town, opposite where we got off the ferry, was a history museum and an aquarium! Finally, located at the back of the island, were several nature trails scaling in difficulty from a casual walk around the perimeter to an arduous trek up Mt. Misen.
Rather than stare at the map and consider our options, we decided to just start walking. Most of the people seemed to heading to the right and down a street towards a beautiful stone torii gate. I really cannot emphasize enough how absolutely beautiful the island was. I’m not sure if that magic gets dampened a bit when there are more people crowding the streets, but everywhere we looked was incredible.
After taking family pictures at the massive stone torii, we could either turn left towards a shopping arcade with a bunch of foods and omiyage (souvenirs) or go right towards the floating torii and Itsukushima Shrine. We chose right since it made more since to look at souvenirs right before leaving.
Floating Shrine of Construction…
While walking along the path, we could see the famous floating torii of Itsukushima …or at least we would have if it wasn’t under construction. We knew before taking our trip that it was under construction, but that didn’t make it any less disappointing. The torii was huge and while it still looked cool, I think it would have been a lot better not covered in scaffolding. It has been under construction since June of 2019 and there isn’t a date set on when it will be finished. One day, however, we’ll see it in all its renovated glory.
Temple and Shrines
Past the floating torii was Itsukushima Shrine itself. The shrine also had some construction near its entrance, but nothing too intrusive and we could still walk inside and through it. The shrine is built over the water with multiple buildings connected via boardwalks supported by pillars. On land, there were many other beautiful shrine and temple related buildings such as a 5-storied pagoda and Senjokaku hall.
Ice Cream Break
We continued walking past all of the beautiful buildings and monuments deciding whether to get something to eat. Eventually, we made our way just shy of the aquarium and did a loop back. We decided to get some delicious coffee ice cream we had seen earlier. Additionally, we were also keeping an eye out for the nature trails, and were trying to find out which one we wanted to take.
After about 5 minutes of enjoying our ice cream, a lone deer wandered up and was obviously interested in the frozen treat. Remembering that sign “Do not feed the deer”, I tried to hurry and finish my ice cream before it arrived. I didn’t make it and the deer soon stood staring at me, slowly inching its face toward my ice cream. I pulled it away, but the deer was insistent. He bit the side of my shirt and pulled several times as I tried to walk away. All the while, I was slowly but surely finishing the ice cream.
Once it was gone, I showed the deer my empty hands while I started to back away. It stood alone in the middle of the sidewalk staring silently at us as we got some distance. After we progressed about 20 feet away, it cried out in apparent disappointment. It continued to cry as we walked further away. My wife joked to my toddler that “Daddy made the deer cry”, which of course he worriedly repeated to me a hundred times for the rest of the day.
I’m sorry Mister Deer, but the sign said “No feeding the deer”.
Just a Casual Stroll
Our next stop was to find a nice trail to walk off our ice cream and my deer guilt. Remembering that the trails were towards the back of the town. We made our way there. On the way, we passed a guy selling tickets for the gondola, which went to the top of the Mt. Misen. We weren’t even at the gondola station yet, so I don’t know why this random shop owner, who was also selling other knick-knacks, was the one selling gondola tickets.
I don’t remember the round-trip price to go up and down the gondola, but it seemed a bit steeper than we thought was worth it. I believe my wife’s comments regarding the price were something along the lines of, “I’m not paying $20 (or-so) for something I can walk up for free”. Plus we just wanted to take a casual stroll and find the nature walk entrance. As we continued past him, we kept an eye out for the start of the trail. Through the forested walking path, we passed several beautiful ryokan that looked like wonderful places to make a reservation to stay.
After stumbling upon a fork in the road, we picked a path and continued on. After a few minutes, we realized we had chosen the hiking route that treks up the mountain. We had a toddler and a small stroller, so obviously we couldn’t do that and I turned around. That’s when my wife says that we should just keep going, which I thought was ridiculous…
So yeah, long story short, we kept walking and ended up trekking up Mt. Misen while carrying a stroller and a toddler. Why? How? I’ll never know. However, I’ll certainly always remember it because it was a strenuous undertaking. The sign said it usually takes people an hour and a half and I think it took us at least two hours. My favorite part was when experienced hikers, decked out in their hiking books, back-packs, and walking sticks, would come up behind us and eye our casual sneakers, heavy stroller, and toddler in tow.
Regardless, somehow we made it to the top and were rewarded with beautiful views across the water to the other side. There was also a Shinto shrine, Buddhist temple, and two separate observatories. At this point, a one way ticket down the gondola was all of sudden not expensive at all when faced with the idea of hiking back down. The gondola back was fun and also provided more great views. Plus, it let us see how far and high we just had hiked, which just baffled us how we even made it.
Low Tide
After enjoying the 10-minute gondola ride down, we walked back into the town. Retracing our path back to the Floating Torii, we were surprised to see it was low tide and the water had completely receded. A few people were out walking in the now uncovered sand between the Itsukushima Shrine and the torii gate. This offered a glimpse into how they may have put up the scaffolding around the torii gate to repair it.
Buying Souvenirs
After admiring everything one last time, we headed back toward the souvenir shops we had seen earlier and perused the wares. We ended up buying some momiji manju, which are a local food of Hiroshima and were actually invented on Miyajima. They are little sweet cakes in the shape of a maple leaf with various filling. We got three kinds, red bean paste, custard cream, and chocolate. We tried them once we got back to the hotel later. Unsurprisingly, they were amazing. We also bought an adorable replica of the Itsukushima Torii gate to remember our trip, which now sits on our book shelf.
My New Favorite Place in Japan
At this point it was almost 4 pm and we were getting pretty hungry. We could have stayed a little longer to see more stuff, but having skipped his usual nap time the last few days, we didn’t want to push things with our toddler who just partially hiked a mountain. Getting back on the ferry and heading back to the hotel was all easy enough.
Mijyajima is officially my favorite place we’ve visited in Japan so far, including Okinawa. I can confidently say it’s a must visit for anyone coming to Hiroshima!
