While in Hiroshima we visited the Peace Memorial Park, Miyajima Island, Hiroshima Castle, ate some great food and partied at the oldest bar in the city. I did make a mistake in planning which cost us the opportunity to see more of Miyajima. Makes me sad and gives us an excuse to try visiting again some day.
The numbering of the "parts" of this trip are a little weird. This post (Part 4.0) covers getting to/around Hiroshima plus Miyajima Island. Technically we visited the Peace Memorial Park (Part 4.1) before heading off to Miyajima, but the park deserved it's own post. Part 4.2 covers food and drinks of the entire day. Hopefully that makes sense!
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| Shinkansen in Kyoto. |
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| Green - Kyoto. Yellow - Hiroshima. Gray - Miyajima. |
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| Our hotel: Washington Hotel. |
For lunch you'll have to check out It's a Trip Part 4.2. After lunch we visited the Peace Memorial Park/Museum and Atomic Bomb Dome, that's in Part 4.1.
And this is where I made the mistake planning our time in Hiroshima. I did not do enough research on Miyajima to know that it takes quite awhile to get there from Hiroshima or that pretty much everything on the island starts closing down around 5pm. Although in distance the island is VERY close, the streetcar took about an hour to get from the Peace Memorial Park to the ferry dock. We stopped practically every 2 minutes. I think we got on the 4:30 ferry and made it the island at 4:45, walked about 10 minutes to the Itsukushima Shrine in time to see the famous "floating torii gate" while the tide was low. Unfortunately our plan to take the ropeway and hike the rest of the way to the top of Mt. Misen was dashed when we found out that the last departure for the ropeway was at 5pm with the last departure down being at 5:30pm. BUMMER! We knew we'd have to hike fast to see everything, but we were shocked to not be able to do it at all. The weather also didn't completely cooperate, it was cloudy and hazy so our view of one of Japan's "Three Best Views" was not all that spectacular. We told ourselves the view from Mt. Misen would have sucked too because of the haze. Didn't help me get over it.
So in summary: Go to Miyajima in the morning or early afternoon! The Peace Memorial Museum is open later (until 5, 6 or 7pm depending on season), quicker to access and doesn't take as much time. The Peace Memorial Park is always open. If I planned our trip over again we would have gone straight to Miyajima after lunch, Peace Memorial the following morning and fit the castle in somewhere only if we had extra time.
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| Our ferry coming in to the dock. |
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| JR ferry about to leave. |
Miyajima "shrine island" is technically named Itsukushima, but Miyajima is the more popular name. Located in Seto Inland Sea/Hiroshima Bay, the island itself has been worshiped as a goddess since long ago. They say that the main shrine on the island was established in 593. Now the island has several Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. The most famous shrine is Itsukushima Shrine which has the even more famous Otorii "Grand Torii Gate." Miyajima has many wandering deer...they were obviously very used to humans. Sadly we noticed that they were eating anything...paper, plastic, etc. They weren't starving either, they were all chunky, probably from people feeding them all the time and they can't differentiate what's food and what's not! Deer are thought to be messengers to Shinto gods so they are treated very well.
GPS coordinates: 34.295802, 132.319681
Otorii! This torii gate is almost 17 meters (55 feet) tall and at a weight of 60 tons is completely self supporting, no foundation into the seabed. There have been 8 Otorii since the original was built in 1168, the current was built in 1875. The main pillars are camphor tree approximately 500-600 years old, resistant to rotting and protected from insect invasion. The rest of the structure is cedar and cypress bark. The vermilion color of the gate is said to keep evil spirits away and the lacquer also helps prevent corrosion. Itsukushima Shrine, including Otorii, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We checked out the gate while the tide was low then we grabbed some beers and watched the tide come in.
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| Itsukushima Shrine as viewed from Otorii. When it's high tide the shrine also "floats," it is built on posts. |
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| Lots of deer under the bridge. |
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| West Corridor. Designated as a National Treasure. |
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| Senjokaku (Toyokuni Shrine) "Hall of 1,000 tatami mats." This is the largest structure on Miyajima Island, its construction began aroung 1600 but was halted 11 years in and has never been completed. |
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| 5-storied pagoda. Originally built in 1407, it's 27.6 meters tall. The Buddha of Medicine is enshrined here. |
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| Osahkushi (World's largest wooden rice scoop). Made from a 270 year old zelkova tree, it's 7.7 meters long and weighs 2.5 tons! |
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| We bought some of Miyajima's famous treats here! |
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| Treats! Momiji Manju, maple leaf shaped cakes. We got several different flavored fillings: rasin, custard, apple, cream cheese & chocolate. The traditional flavor is red bean paste, we sampled it...didn't buy it. |
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| Miyajima Beer, Caramel Blond. |
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| Somebody wants my Momiji Manju! |
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| They wouldn't stop following us! The restrooms at the ferry port even had special gates to keep them out. |
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| Miyajima map. |
Getting to Hiroshima from Kyoto: We took the shinkansen from Kyoto and it took just over 1 1/2 hours.
Where we stayed: Washington Hotel, http://www.expedia.com/Hiroshima-Hotels-Hiroshima-Washington-Hotel. I booked the hotel through Expedia.com it was a nice place with a good location and price was great at ~¥7,000/night. The hotel was a few minutes walk (3 blocks-ish) from the nearest streetcar stop (Hatchobori) and was near restaurants and bars.
GPS coordinates: 34.392051, 132.462631
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| Another small room, but it's adequate. |
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| The tub/shower room had a mirror at an interesting height... |
How we got around Hiroshima/Miyajima: Navigating Hiroshima was relatively easy, they have a streetcar system that goes to the major sites. We were able to get day passes that included unlimited rides on the streetcars and the ferry to Miyajima for ¥840. Without passes streetcars are ¥150-270 per ride and ferries are ¥180 each way. I found information about a ¥2000 2-day pass (Miyajima Free Pass) that included streetcars, ferry and Miyajima ropeway, but when we asked a couple people about it they said it was no longer available and was only for a limited time. Worth a shot asking about it, maybe they'll offer it again! The ropeway alone is ¥1800 so it's a great deal when available. Not getting it worked out for us in the end since we missed out on the ropeway...
There are 2 ferry companies that go to Miyajima, both cost the same. JR & Matsudai. We went with Matsudai because it was included in the price of our transportation passes.
Below is the map of places we visited in Hiroshima. Bakudan-ya Honten and Hiko Hiroshima Tsukemen were the restaurants that were closed when we tried to go. Ferry dock, Itsukushima Shrine and Pagoda were at Miyajima and are not visible when zoomed in to this level.
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