After a fairly sombre day and an evening of sake tasting in Hiroshima, our second day started on another express train. This holiday is very much public transport positive.
Travelling west, we alighted at Miyajimaguchi Station, walked 2mins towards the water and jumped onto the ferry to Miyajima Island. I didn't honestly know what the significance of this island was, even before travelling to Japan, apart from of course the iconic giant Torii red gate on the approach. Luckily Kumiko expertly told us to stand on the starboard (right) for the best views.
Our luxury carriage
There'll be more photos of this from every conceivable angle
Looking back towards Hiroshima
What is Miyajima?
It's a 'small' island south west of Hiroshima, 1km from the mainland filled with thick forests, temples, shinto tree gates, lots of wild tame deer, and shibu dogs in prams. At the entrance is the Great Torii Gate that seems to move with the height of the tide along with the nearby sanctuary.
There's a bunch of hikes up to 500m high Mt Misen or Cable car rides to almost the top. For a smaller island there's a very solid town centre with plenty of shops, museums, an aquarium and sensible walks.
One of the most significant temples on this island is Daisho-in, found at the base of Mount Misen on which the founder Kobo Daishi first began practicing Buddhism. We first came across him in Kayosan.
We all walked along the forshore, heading west, stopping at Mikasa Beach for some more gate photos plus some people photos.
Itsukushima Shrine stone torii
Deer whisperer Gemma
This is Ian, he works in logistic as a boop distributor.
Rap battler Maria
Multi-tasking and extreme planning expert Kumiko. Legend is she can plans whilst upside and in a zero gravity environment.
We continued our walk heading west and the south through the gravel and tarmac roads, next goal was the Daisho-In Temple walk.
We walked past the Itsukushima Shrine Treasure Hall, and continued south along the very slight uphill road, until we arrived at the gates to Daisho-in.
...or is Tia the deer whisperer?
Niomon Gate that leads to Daisho-in
The entrance to the complex is marked with a Niamon Gate and many many many steps up the hill. But, if you don't climb the stairs and instead take a sharp left you end up on a path that is entirely surrounded by Raken statues. Each statue represents a Buddhist monk who was an actual disciple of Buddha. Each statue is completely unique and among them are also the cute little Jizo statues.
They all have different grimaces
The cute Jizo statues
Here's a short music free video of the Raken statues.
Before I do a photo dump of the rest of Daisho-in, there was one other thing I wanted to write about. One of the buildings is Kannon-do Hall. At the entrance there is a set of stairs on the left hand side that leads into complete darkness. The path leads those who enter into an area of complete darkness around the base of the building until it emerges on the right hand side of the entrance. It's pretty disorientating, not for the faint of heart and thankfully, even though I kind of crouched through the whole place, which was necessary in the tunnels of Vietnam, this tunnel was actually tall enough for my 185cm stature. Photo Dump!
Kumiko explain our hiking options
We decided we would do the manly thing and do the whole hike straight to the top of Mt Misen and then maybe take the cable car back down the hill, but that seemed like a later problem. What was important is that we had water, a plan and one cup of sake as a mountain peak reward.
It's like an advert for under armour
Our first opportunity after some hiking for a bit of a break was the Azumaya Observation Deck. So far the path had been surrounded by trees and valleys so this provided an opportunity to the see the grand gate again.
So we kept walking until we reached the top.
The peak of Mt Misen was denoted by the Mount Misen Observatory building. A double story lookout point with seating and shade and the worst souvenir store ever. No magnets, some trinkets and no ice cream. Still, we got to enjoy some pretty spectacular views in every direction.
Looking NE towards Hiroshima
Okishioya towards the west
Though we didn't realise at the time, that building is the top of the cable car and as its a 180MP photo you can actual zoom in and see the ridiculous queue already there...
We drank our well deserved sake and ate a couple of protein bars, then walked with Team Sake towards the cable car, thinking that we'd deserved the easy descent. We did deserve it, except we didn't realise the investment in time required to travel down two separate cable cars with queues at both stations followed by another 20min walk at the base back towards the town site. Still, some good views I guess.
...and that, was basically our day on Miyajima Island. Enjoy some photos of people and a video of a deer doing deer stuff.
Jessica, also works in receivals as a boopee.
Ricky is a sweetcorn distributor. Sweetcorn is like crack cocaine for deer.
