Miyajima Island

So, picking up where I left off, the second part of our day in Hiroshima was actually not in Hiroshima at all. We left the Peace Museum and headed back along the park towards a small wharf area next to one of the bridges where we boarded our boat for Miyajima Island.

The boat ride took about 45 minutes. It was a small vessel that sat close to the water with rows of sits full enclosed inside. Low tide can get quite low around Hiroshima so the boat schedules are strict to avoid damaging vessels on the riverbed when the water is too low.

From the boat.

Miyajima Island is also known as ‘Deer Island’ because… well… I’ll let you figure that out. It is home to a number of shrines and temples, including Itsukushima Shrine which has a huge torii gate the stands in the middle of the ocean at high tide.

Hisashi, our guide, explained the Buddhist and Shinto practitioners had lived largely in harmony with each other except for one point an Miyajima when the emperor decided the sacred island needed to be Shinto only and ordered all the temples be removed or converted. One of the Buddhist monks saved and hid all the Buddhist statues and other items to give the appearance of going full Shinto. Suspecting treachery, the emperor sent officials to ensure the transition was complete. The monk pretended to be sick until they went away. How Aussie is that?

Can you see the evil in its eyes?

Once we disembarked we began our walk from the docks to Itsukushima Shrine via the shopping strip which was full of souvenir places as well as restaurants, food stalls and other bespoke stores. We bought Kairi a little cat thing to go with another cat thing she had bought earlier in the trip at Mt Fuji and now decided needed a friend. We also stopped at a matcha sweet store to buy a matcha set for one of Emily’s friend’s birthdays.

We immediately came across some of the island’s deer. There are two rules with the deer: Don’t feed them and don’t touch the babies. Hisashi added some extra rules of his own: Keep and eye on your shopping and watch your back. As if to prove his point, a nearby deer ripped the side out of an unsuspecting tourist’s paper shopping bag. Watch your back. Got it. We later saw another deer that had snuck up behind a woman sitting on a retaining wall and stand on the back of her skirt. She was unable to stand up and move and the deer pinning her skirt to the ground refused to budge. They had no food and had not engaged with the deer. It was just being a dick.

While winding through the shopping strip we ended up at the restaurant Hisashi had booked for lunch. We were to try the signature dish of Hiroshima and Osaka - okonomiyaki. While both share similar ingredients it is the way they are prepared in the two regions that creates the different versions. Hiroshima style is healthier, Hisashi told us.

We were able to watch lunch be prepared.

Okonomiyaki - Hiroshima style.

Okonomiyaki is basically a thin crepe base topped with cabbage, bacon, noodles and egg. It is then drizzled with a sauce. You can have additional things like cheese inside as well as prawns or oysters on top. We all opted for the cheese option which was also the child option because Hisashi said they were quite big so he always ordered from the kid section. He was right. I barely finished the child option. I thought it was very tasty. Emily and Teneille ate all theirs too. Kairi ate about half of hers after dissecting it and eating the bits she liked. Aiden finally met his match with Japanese food and wasn’t a fan.

After lunch we continued walking towards the shrine. Hisashi said there was one big rule on Miyajima Island - you aren’t allowed to die. Ok, I said. What if you are one of the 1400 residents on the island and you get, like, really really sick? You get shipped off the island, Hisashi said. Harsh. The island is a scared space and death is considered impure, hence the rule. We promised we do our best not to die today.

We made it to the shrine easily to find the tide completely out. All of the shrine’s boardwalks were passing above sand with the water having retreated for the time being. Little crabs could be seen scuttling everywhere and about 200m out in the bay the giant torii gate stood completely accessible by foot. We were at the island at this time by Hisashi’s design. The tides had been quite big lately, he told us, and yesterday he had been at the shrine at high tide with water lapping up through the floorboards.

The shrine is surrounded by water at high tide.

A local out for a stroll.

We wove our way through the shrine and then down a ramp to walk out to the gate. It is immediately apparent with the base exposed that the gate is not crafted wood placed there, they are giant trees that were felled and then plonked down to be painted orange. Hisashi said the wood was 600 years old and the gate, in fact the whole shrine, is not set in stone so to speak. All the structures are simply sitting on top of the sand, permanent but not at the same time.

Having hopped our way back across the water pools to dry land we started heading back to the boat. We stopped in at a dessert shop to have a deep fried momiji manju, a type of small cake with a filling that is then fried. Momiji manju has been around for a long time, Hisashi said. The deep fried version is more modern but everyone loves it. You can choose your filling. Traditionally, the filling would be a sweet bean paste but they have an array of options like chocolate, custard etc etc. We bought a couple of boxes to bring home.

The giant torii gate at low tide.

The boat ride back to Hiroshima was uneventful and we said goodbye to Hisashi after we docked. We had dinner a small Italian place next to the river and when we were finished wandered back to a couple of the monuments around the peace park to see if they were lit up at night. We then ran back to the restaurant when Kairi realised she left her cat thing there. The waitress had saved Mrs Meow Meow and it was quickly reunited with Kairi.

That’s everyone losing something now, by the way. Emily lost her bag in Tokyo, I lost the passports, Aiden lost his shopping in Kyoto, Teneille lost our room key in Kyoto also and now Kairi lost her cat. All items retrieved in the end, though.

Island life.

We finished our day with a leisurely stroll back to the hotel where I did another load of washing before bed.

We had a very enjoyable day, however, if I was doing it again I would have done the Peace Museum as one day and the island as another. We felt very rushed through the museum and the island had a lot of other temples and shrines to explore in addition to a mountain to climb. It would also have been cool to see the island at high tide. I could have easily spent a full day on each.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Japan before we back and head home. Until then…