Hiroshima Day Trip to Miyajima

After my work meeting, I stayed one extra day not just so I wouldn’t have to be getting on and off a plane within 48 hours – I just have always wanted to see the famous red floating Torii gates. This can only be accomplished via a Hiroshima Day Trip to Miyajima Island, where you will find the floating red Japanese gates as part of Itsukushima Shrine. The actual name of the island and shrine are Itsukushima (which translates to island of worship when the whole island was considered holy), but it is often called by “Miyajima” which literally means “shrine island” and is also less consonants.

One of the wild deer on Miyajima Island checking out the famous red Itsukushima Floating Torii Gate / Me and the gate behind mat at Itsukushima Shrine

It’s totally possible to do a full day trip, but also a half day, as long as you get to Miyajima by 1 or 2 PM I think. I know I bundled my only free day with first visiting the free attractions in Hiroshima per my last post, and then heading here for lunch onward. Warning, this is a long post because I wanted to cover everything about Miyajima in one post instead of over multiple posts as part of your research for a trip.

Logistics of Getting To Miyajima

Miyajima is an island, so at one point you will definitely need to be on a boat of some sort to get there. However, there are a few different options in terms of cost and time in terms of how to get there from Hiroshima.

The most expensive is also the most convenient: from downtown Hiroshima you can take a high speed boat from Hiroshima Port is the fastest with only 30 minutes each way but has a more limited schedule.  There are also lunch and dinner cruise options along this route. Alternatively you can also take the World Heritage Sea Route boat, which leaves directly from Peace Memorial Park area. During its 45 minute ride you can enjoy views of Hiroshima then the boat enters Hiroshima Bay to travel west to Miyajima. Both of these options give you more of a view of the sea. These are the most expensive of the options (3300 yen, or 3600 yen roundtrip for those two options.)

I went with an option which let me ride the local streetcar (if you are not located already by a train station) to the JR Sanyo local trains (such as Hiroshima Station). There I then boarded a train there west for about 30 minutes to Miyajimaguchi Station. If where you are staying is already close to a train line you can skip the streetcar step.

Then it is a a 10 minute ferry ride from the ferry port a few blocks from Miyajimaguchi Station. The ferry ride here if you take the JR ferry (there are two ferry lines available) hooks slightly south of the shrine so that it is gives you a far view approaching and passing by the famous red floating Torii gate before getting to the Miyajima port. As you see my various photos of the gate through this post, you will see how the tide is rising – when I first got there people were still able to walk up to the gate. You can see in the second photo when the roles were reversed and I was on the land by the Torii gate and one of the ferry boats is in the water turning on the right side towards the pier.

This travel version I took has more transfers but only costs about 1200 yen roundtrip on my IC card, and the train and ferry are also covered by the JR Pass (note: the streetcar is not covered by JR Pass). Technically you could also ride the streetcar tram all the way to Miyajimaguchi Station but that is the longest route since the tram runs along the street and is slower then the train.

While everyone seems to rush from Miyajimaguchi Station to the ferry line, there are also a few stores and food stands here – like one for dango where I enjoyed the rice balls on a stick as a snack before I got on the ferry.

I got mine with roasted soybean powder, also known as kinako. If you haven’t heard of dango before, it is a Japanese dumpling and sweet made from rice flour and can have different flavorings based on marinades or powders that are brushed on after grilling the rice ball dumplings on a skewer.

Things to do at Miyajima

You can visit a lot of different sights in Miyajima besides seeing the famous red Torii gates. But, admittedly those gates of Itsukushima Shrine (built in the 12th century) are the most famous attraction here. The shrine and the 16 meter high gate appears to be floating on water when the tide is high. The gate is considered the boundary between the human and the spirit worlds. During high tide, the whole shrine is built so the water comes below so it seems everything appears as if floating over water.

 

Supposedly the shrine was built because the island itself was considered a god that by building the shrine on a boardwalk, the island itself would not be hurt.

There is a small 300 yen (~$3) fee to visit Itsukushima Shrine. I recommend doing so only when the tide is higher so the gate already looks like it is floating and the water if at the temple too. You can only travel one way from one end to the other of the shrine. It is relatively flat, but expect no place to sit in order to keep the visitor traffic moving.

I was lucky during my visit I spotted 2 mikos (shrine maidens) and kannushi (shrine priest) after they had completed some ceremony with a group.

As usual, you will find many omamori, or charms, that the temple sells to help wish you good health, studies, general success, luck, love, even traffic safety… I might look for any unusual amulets, but mainly I like checking out the ema, or wish boards, because many temples have specialized designs. I also like looking at where after visitors write or draw their wishes, what people may have added.

You will always find a line to get this shot, which is the furthest point of the shrine facing the gate. The line moves pretty fast, and everyone takes turns helping out with the camera to take photos of the group before.

Towards the end, look for some fun artwork along the hallways.

While you are waiting for high tide to come in, if you are like me and come early and also see it when you can approach the gates, there is a lot of pretty good people watching overall on the island especially at the viewpoints to the gate, varying from couples to families to school groups to lots of tourists from around the world.

Other things you can do while here on Miyajima include going to the top of Mount Misen for the view, and visit Daisho-in Temple. The temple has many interesting spots to visit beyond the usual temple halls, such as a pathway full of 500 raka statues, an underground cave, a tea room, and paths lined with Mani prayer wheels, which are believed to bestow blessings on the one who spins them.

You don’t have to walk all the way up the mountain- right by the pier there is a shuttle that takes you partway, and from there there is the option of a ropeway with air gondolas to help you ascend if you don’t want to walk all the way from the pier. There is still some walking up to the top that will be involved though for 30 minutes up a steep trail.

Not far from the pier there is a Bengal Cat and Owl cafe. I would like to suggest NOT visiting it – I didn’t. I read very sadly from multiple sources about the conditions of the animals in the cafe and lack of freedom they have – if you visit any kind of animal cafe please make sure you research it first. Check out the wild deer here in Miyajima instead and watch as you see the deer beg and steal food or relax non nonchalantly in the middle of a pathway.

Eating at Miyajima

One thing you will notice that is plentiful in Miyajima while you are killing time as the tide rises or falls is the food! There is a famous street called Omotesando Street and heading to this street from Miyajima Pier offers lots of food options: restaurants and food stands with various treats.

For instance, one of the first stands I was attracted to was for the Miyajima specialty of Nigiriten, a bunch of steamed then grilled skewers of kamaboko, aka fishcakes made of surimi or pureed seafood (usually a whitefish). Surimi has been around supposedly since the 14th century and inspired for instance imitation crab you may have seen in rolls here in the US. The types available at the stand I saw included oyster, octopus, seasoned cod roe, shrimp, eel, and cheese.

The reason I picked this stand and walked by some others is my #1 rule with street food stands that you are not familiar with and don’t know the language – don’t eat the food unless you can see them cooking it. You want the food to be fresh, not to just pay and be handed something that has been sitting out for who knows how long. It is also usually a good indicator if someplace doesn’t have a huge stock of food sitting there because they are continually making more, or especially if there is a line, that the food is good.

You will particularly see a lot of oysters and probably eel advertised. This is because the oysters in Hiroshima are famous, particularly the ones from Miyajima because there are many oyster farms located here for the past 400 years or so. In February Miyajima even hosts an annual oyster festival. You will not usually find Hiroshima oysters outside Japan because the Japanese consume most of it!

There are two main places offering sit down oysters that are famous – Kakiya and Hayashi – but you will also see multiple stands offering quick grab and go raw or grilled oysters all along the streets.

Broiled eel in Miyajima is also famous – there is even one restaurant called Ueno famous for eel that has been around with a relatively unchanged menu for 120 years. Or, visit the famous Fujiyata that has been open since 1902 and boats a Michelin star. I decided to opt against having the eel because I thought the wait would be too long and I only had part of a day here. If you are here for an all day trip, and especially if you are hear before 11 AM and are beating the lunch crowd, you should definitely consider stopping at either of these stops for their Anago Mesh, a grilled eel on rice dish.

I really wanted an oyster flight though. I opted to go to Kakiya which if you are a party of 1 or 2, you may get seated pretty quickly because they have a little countertop bar area by the front where the oyster grill is: that’s how it worked out for me anyway, lucky me! I happened to be really interested in having an oyster flight – oysters prepared multiple ways.

Kakiya has a nice big English menu, and decades of experience of barbequing the oysters in the shell over the flames.

I also tried Hiroshima gin in a Hiroshima lemon mojito. The restaurant also offers a really great selection of wine or sake to go with your oysters including local Hiroshima or Miyajima produced ones. I was jealous of other duos at the counter alongside enjoying sparkling wine with their oysters.

So I ordered the Kakiya set: with the set you get to try

• oysters grilled
• fried with panko
• simmered in an oyster rice dish
• red oyster miso soup, and oiled oyster
• a preparation of preserved oysters in grapeseed oil with bay laurel and cayenne pepper.

Count that up – that’s oysters five ways – and I could have had it a seventh way if I had enough stomach room to order an additional side dish of oysters gratin and another side of oyster rice ball.

I really enjoyed the barbecued oysters which were large and juicy.

Then here’s a look at the preparations of the oysters: simmered in an oyster rice dish, a preparation of preserved oysters in grapeseed oil with bay laurel and cayenne pepper, fried in panko and the other side of the tray with the red oyster miso soup towards the top. Of all the preparations, my favorite was the light crisp and not oily fried oyster with the juicyiness of the oysters inside, and then the grilled oysters.

Then for dessert I opted for soft serve – you may see a few stands that offer a “deer poop” version of the soft serve as a reference to some of the wild deer you may see here on the island. I wanted quality ice cream though so went for the Cremia soft serve you will find at one of the stands. The Cremia soft serve is smaller, but higher quality as it is higher milk fat (12.5%) content that includes some 25% fresh cream, and the milk is sourced from specially selected Hokkaido cows.

You can definitely taste the difference in how rich and creamy the texture is, so even though it looks small you are getting a lot of flavor. I also comes in a thin wafer cookie/cracker like cone called langue de chat that is much better then any regular cone. I got mine with matcha topping.

While you are waiting for the tide to rise or fall, you can also visit Miyajima Brewery if you’d like, and you can buy bottles with some nice labels if you have some beer friends back home from the brewery or at several of the shops.

I loved my time at Miyajima. This completes my coverage of my brief 3 night stay in Hiroshima that only had 1 free day before I flew back. If I had one more day, the other day trip I would have tried from Hiroshima is to Okunoshima Bunny Island, home to some 300 bunnies which descended from 40 rabbits that were left on the island decades ago.

Is there anything else in the Hiroshima area that I missed out on visiting that you would recommend – let me know in the comments or on social media! If you’ve been before, what were your favorite things you did? Or if you haven’t been before, where would you like to see?