Miyajima Island

 

Saturday 1 July

Day 12

The rain persisted through the night, but it didn’t disturb us, as the double glazed windows work a treat. We woke to a grey and dreary looking morning. Paul was recounting the number of tree bits he was seeing washing down the murky brown rivers below. We sat watching from above the fork of 2 rivers; Enko and Kyobashi. 

With the morning routine done, we made our way back to Hiroshima station to catch a JR line train to Miyajima Island. Unfortunately, like so many other tourists, we found the gates barricaded. Turns out the rain had wiped out the line until further notice. Bugger. We went straight to the tourist information centre and enquired about ways to get to Miyajima and were told we could take the the number 2 tram instead. Yay. 

We retraced our steps out of the station, located the street car station and boarded the car that was just about to leave. Good timing. It was fairly busy, so we had to stand for the beginning of the journey. If we had managed to take the train, the trip would take 25min. Commuting via the street car, meant an hour and 15min trip. Oh well. We were just grateful there was another option. 

Eventually a space opened up and I pounced on the seats, unfortunately, so did another dude, so we ended up sharing and Paul was relegated to the semi standing priority seat, that the bloke had vacated! We saw out the rest of the trip from these spots, before finally arriving at Miyajima ferry port, where we caught the small car ferry to the island. The trip is fast, 10 min and allows you to see the many oyster beds that are set up in Hiroshima Bay. It also provides a great view of the approaching island and the torii gate that sits in the bay. Long, grey clouds were wrapped like cotton wool around the island’s forested mountains. The rain hadn’t let off, so the umbrellas needed to be handy.

We disembarked the ferry, finally, making our destination by 11.30am. We wandered along the waters edge footpath and grabbed a curry oyster bread pastry thing to stave off the lunch cravings. From here we could see the tide was receding. We made our way in the direction of the torii gate and it wasn’t long before we were being met by the local residents, deer. They were happy to wander amongst the many visitors and see if you had anything worth nibbling on. 

There were plenty of places to take in the vista of the torii gate. When the tide is in, it sits in the water and appears to be floating. We weren’t going to see it like this today. We continued to follow the sand path until we reached the Itsukushima Shrine. We paid the 300yen fee and then wandered around the large wooden structure, that would also sit on the water’s edge when the tide is in. From here we had front on views of the torii gate. I had to have Paul run umbrella duty, to ensure the camera gear and I remained dry. This also meant he was more prone to also having an eye poked out by my wilding swinging brolly.

From here, we returned to the Omotesando Arcade, the main shopping street. Miyajima, has a small microbrewery and Paul was keen to try their selection. He was very impressed with the 3 tasters he had. However, now food was needed. Miyajima produces 60% of Japan’s oysters, so we were looking for somewhere that we could try them. We found just the thing. We were encouraged to buy the set menu and add 1gratin oyster version to it. This turned out to be a good idea, as we were presented with massive oysters that were; 2 cooked in shell on the bbq, 3 steamed with rice, 1 in oil, 3 crumbed and 1 in the miso soup. $40 each was pretty reasonable for all of this and a drink, we thought. 

We were both now well full, so needed to get walking. The rain had finally let up, so we could fold up the umbrellas for the time being. We returned to the start of the Itsukushima Shrine, where a wedding party had just arrived. We took a left up the rock staircase to the five storied pagoda. We made our way around the Itsukushima Jinga before taking in the sight of the 24m tall pagoda. It is pretty spectacular when viewed from any angle. We spoke to Jaden and Rayah, while taking in the view from this higher position. When the call was done, we continued down into the back streets. The rain began once again, so we sought the shelter of the umbrellas as we followed the road back to the Main Street. 

Paul returned for a beer at Miyajima brewery and then I was keen to buy a maple leaf treat called momijii manju. It is a small sponge like dessert filled with various centres. I chose custard. Thankfully it was only small, as I was still quite full from lunch. Satisfied with our day, we made our way back towards the ferry terminal, stopping to say hi to a few of the deer on the way. The rain gone away yet again.

We jumped straight on the 235pm ferry. I checked google for our ongoing journey, happy to see the JR line was back in operation. We made our way to the station for 3pm and waited on the platform for the 320pm train, that didn’t arrive until 3.30pm. We jumped into 2 vacant seats and sat back expecting to be back in Hiroshima for 4pm, but the train was only running at half pace, so it was 430pm when we finally returned to the station. It was at least relaxing and I was able to see some different sights, so not a big issue. I guess there were still ongoing issues with the line. 

We walked the 500m back to the hotel, happy to chill out in the hotel and watch the baseball for a while. Paul’s belly was still dodgy and he needed to rest up. We ended up just venturing to the corner Family Mart for some small dinner supplies. Both of us were still digesting our oyster meal, so we’re not feeling particularly hungry. We returned to the hotel via the river walkway, collected a tempur pillow from reception and then called it a night.

I think an extra day in Hiroshima would have been wise. We both would have enjoyed staying a night on Miyajima Island and I feel Hiroshima city had a lot more to offer, than we were able to see in the time we had. The wet weather also hampered our ability to really take everything in. Another place to return to.