Miyajima (and Shukkeien Garden)

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On our second day in Hiroshima, we had planned to visit Shukkeien Garden and then spend the rest of the day on the island of Miyajima. Me and Lani were up early at 9 AM so that we could get an early start on the day's activities. We had told the others to be ready by 11, but the two of us decided the night before to leave at 10 instead to make sure we got enough time in Miyajima. So we knocked on the guys' door and woke them up, which they weren't too happy about...but hey, we had a schedule to stick to! When everyone finally woke up and got ready, we checked out of the hostel at around 10:30 and went to catch the tram to reach Shukkeien Garden.

Shukkeien Garden was absolutely gorgeous! And it was the perfect day for viewing it...it was sunny again and in the low 50s. So we were really lucky! We started out on the little path and the first place we came to was a little pavilion at the top of a hill, which is called the chozen-kyo. From the chozen-kyo, we got a great view of the entire garden. It was an amazing sight, with the bridge cutting across the center of the Takuei Pond and the beautiful Japanese landscaping of the trees and bushes. Then we kept walking along the trails until we came to the plum orchards. They were just starting to bloom, and the orchard had pretty little white and pink flowers everywhere! There was also a little trail that went through the orchard, which took up a whole side of the garden itself. Afer the plum orchard, we all kind of split up and went our own ways. Leilani went ahead of everyone and moved really fast through the garden (she really wanted to get to Miyajima lol), while I took my time along the trails. I would climb up every single hill, find every little creek and waterfall, and just get completely lost in the garden. It was so much fun! I felt like a little kid exploring, hopping across the rocks the cross over a creek and trying to find the best shots of the garden as possible. I had an amazing time at the garden! About an hour after we had gotten there, me and Leilani had reached the exit and were waiting on Eugene and Anton, who decided to stop and eat at the plum orchards, so they were taking a long time. But eventually the whole group was reunited, and we left the garden to catch the tram to MIYAJIMA!

The Miyajima-guchi stop, which is the port to Miyajima, was the very last stop on the tram route, so we had to ride on the tram for about an hour before we reached our stop. We ate the food we had bought at the 7-Eleven earlier that morning for lunch on the tram, which we knew was not very good manners. You're not supposed to eat or drink anything in public, especially on public transportation! But we really had no other choice, and it didn't seem like anyone on the tram really minded. So when we finally reached the port at Miyajima, it was almost 2 o'clock, which was right on time according to the schedule me and Lani had made for the day! That made us really happy...yeah I know, we both have control issues! So We bought our ferry tickets, and as we were walking towards the ferry, we saw a diplay of ice creams and other desserts outside a restaurant and go to look at them. It was the most amazing ice cream I've ever seen...they even had a grape and orange flavor! But we didn't have time to get them or we would miss the ferry, so we decided we would get them before we left on our way back. Anyway, we boarded the ferry and went up to the second story to get the best view. As the ferry set off, we got an awesome view of the coast and all around the sea. It was amazing to see the buildings of the city on the coast with the mountains behind them. And then as we got closer to our destination, we could see the shore of Miyajima and of course the orange otorii, which is kind of hard to miss! I was so excited!

We got off of the ferry and walked through the little station, and when we came out we were on Miyajima! The island was so cute, there were dirt roads and everything looked very old. But not old in a bad way, it was just very old-fashioned and very cute! We hadn't gotten to look around for long when all of a sudden we noticed there was a DEER right in front of us! It was so adorable with its big eyes and big ears. Me and Lani both went crazy for all deer, or sika as they are called in Japanese. There was another deer digging through the trash, and when he didn't find anything to eat there, he came over to Eugene and tried to take his bag that had his 7-Eleven snacks in them. It was pretty funny, they wouldn't leave him alone! Then there were little baby deer, and deer running around the bicycles in the parking lot, it was awesome! So we spent about 20 minutes playing with the deer at the entrance, not even really stepping into the island. But it was a good distraction because they were so cute! Eventually we left the sika and started walking down the street towards the main part of the island.

I can't even begin to put into words how beautiful the island was! Walking down the dirt road, we could look out over the stone walls on the sides of the walkway and see the Inland Sea and the coast of Hiroshima on the other side. And the otorii was standing out in the middle of the sea, it was such an amazing sight! Miyajima is like its own little city...of course there's all the temples and shrines and things like that. You know, the usual tourist sights. But it's also a little town where people live, with their houses packed together at the base of the mountain, and a shopping area with restaurants and tons of souvenir shops. How amazing would it be to live on an island like Miyajima? I want a vacation home there. It's so pretty and so relaxing, and just a very cute little town overall.

We decided to go see the sights first, since we knew entrance to a lot of them closed at around 4 or 5 PM. So we wanted to make sure we got to see them before that. Our first sight was the Senjokaku, and we had to climb up a really steep hill to get there. It's like a giant hall decorated with giant rice scoops and wooden plaques displaying Japanese art hung everywhere. The name Senjokaku mean "hall of a thousand mats," and the interior of the hall is large enough to lay down 857 tatami mats...that's a lot of tatami mats! And there were some of the largest rice scoops I've ever seen in my life in there! Right beside the Senokaku was the Five-Storied Pagoda. It was a beautiful pagoda that was built in the early 1400s. It's a really beautiful example of Japanese architecture blended with Chinese (Yes I did do my research for this trip!). I love Japanese architecture...especially on Miyajima, where everything is bright orange. It's so pretty! The pagoda also looks pretty when you see the island from a distance, because you can see the orange set right inside the mountains. To leave the Senjokaku and Pagoda area, we had to climb back down the mountain on this huge stairway...I looked down and all I could see were steps, steps, and more steps! When we finally made it back down the mountain, we kept on walking and came to a little street with a bunch of souvenir shops and restaurants. All the souvenir shops had the same stuff...deer, rice scoops, pottery, maple leafs. All the typical Miyajima stuff! As we came to the edge of the street, though, we saw a street vendor outside one of the restaurants selling grilled oysters. And since Miyajima is supposed to have the best oysters in Japan, we had to give them a try! The oysters on the grill were so hot that they would explode while they were cooking, and stuff would go flying towards people...it was pretty scary standing in line! Especially when it was our turn, because there was no one in front of us to hide behind...even the cook was wearing protective goggles! After about 10 minutes of waiting in line, we finally got our oysters. There were 2, so me and Lani each got one. It was really good oyster...I think! That was actually the first time I've ever eaten oyster, that I'm aware of, so I don't have anything to compare it to. But for someone who doesn't like seafood, it actually tasted good! A bit squishy and slimy, but it had a really good taste to it.

Well after our oyster experience, we kept on walking towards the next sight, which was Daishoin Temple. This was the most historic temple on Miyajima and was right at the base of Mt. Misen. At the entrance to the temple were huge Buddhist statues, and the whole temple itself had a strong Buddhist feel...more statues than any of the other temples I've seen in Japan. And the Daishoin was by far the largest, most intricate temple I had been to. To even get to the main hall area, we had to climb up another lengthy flight of stairs that seemed to never end. But it was an interesting walk up because the walls on the sides were stones with Japanese inscriptions on them, and on the rail going up the center of the stairs were rotating cylinders with some kind of writing on them. I noticed that as some of the Japanese people were coming down, they would run their hands along the cylinders to make them rotate. So I think they may have some religious purpose, but what that purpose is I don't know. Also, if you looked over the side of the staircase there were little gardens and statues all along the mountain. One of the most interesting was this area that had literally hundreds of Buddha statues. There were statues of all sizes and they were all packed together in this little garden area. There were also a lot of alters set up, and a lot of the statues were even dressed in clothing! So we finally reached the top of the staircase and came to an area with about 3 different structures. They all looked like little temples, one of them had a Buddhist statue inside and the bell to ring on the outside. There was also a pretty little pond right beside it! But that wasn't even the top of the Daishoin. There was yet another long staircase leading up to the next level...so we continued walking. When we reached the top we found much of the same things we had seen below. More statues and alters and gardens, and of course another temple at the very top. But probably the best part of reaching the top was the view we got of the island. We were way up in Mt. Misen and could see the whole island from the top of the Daishoin Temple.

After we descended the mountain, we continued on our way trying to find the Treasure Hall. Although we got lost and ended up going on this long trail that took us way up into the mountain. We had all been planning to ride the cable car up to the top of Mt. Misen (they were supposed to have wild monkeys up there!) but we found out it was undergoing maintenance and wasn't running. So we were planning to actually hike up the mountain...we really wanted to see some monkeys! But that would take an hour and a half one way, so we decided we didn't really have enough time anyway. But we kept following the trail just to see where it would take us...until we realized that it was taking us all the way back to the Daishoin Temple! So we turned around walked the other direction, which brought us to the Tahoto Pagoda. It was a smaller pagoda than the Five-Storied Pagoda we saw earlier, but it was still pretty and had the same type of architecture. It was also at the edge of the mountain and had a great view of the island and the sea, and the coast in the background. Pretty much anywhere on the island was an amazing view! I couldn't believe how far up we had actually gone in the mountain though...we were pretty high up there. After the Tahoto Pagoda we went to find the Aquarium on the island. On the way we found a vendor selling this sweet rice dough, like mochi dough, with sauce on it, and they were on a stick. So we decided to try some since they were only 100 yen. They were really good, just like all the other food I've tried in Japan lol. But then this deer came out of nowhere and started chasing us...well mostly just Anton and Eugene for some reason. But it was funny because the lady who sold us the snacks came out and starting chasing the deer away from us. It was such a funny sight! Anyway, we found the aquarium, but we decided it cost too much and it seemed kind of small, so we decided not to go inside. Later on I found out we made a mistake, because Bas told me they had PENGUINS in there, and he showed me pictures and you could actually hold and play with the penguins...I was very disappointed!

After stopping by the aquarium we started to head back down the mountain...our next mission was to find the Giant Rice Scoop (it's the largest rice scoop in the world lol). As we were walking along we came to the Treasure Hall, which was nowhere near where the signs had pointed us to. But at least we found it. Of course, we didn't go inside of it because it cost for admission, and we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. So we kept on looking for our rice scoop. We walked along the main street, Machiya-dori Ave., until we reached the Omotesando Shopping Street, which is where the giant rice scoop was supposed to be. We walked around and looked at all the souvenir shops. I bought a little rice scoop and a keychain. I was so excited when I found the keychain because I had bought the same one the last time I came to Miyajima, but it had broken a few months ago. So I found the exact same one to replace it!! Then me and Lani bought some momiji manju, the famous pastry of Miyajima. It's a little pastry in the shape of a maple leaf that has different kinds of fillings. We tried the red bean, cream cheese, chocolate, custard, peach jam, and macha (green tea) flavors...so pretty much every single kind they made! They were sooo oishii! We even got one that was deep-fried, and it was definitely the best! Completely unhealthy? Yes...but so very oishii!

So after doing all that, we still hadn't found the giant rice scoop. So I turn to Eugene and I'm like, "How hard can it be to find an 8 meter long rice scoop?" And he's like "Right there!" And there it is, right in front of us...the world's largest rice scoop. It said it was 7.7 meters in length and weighed 2.5 "tonnes." Which if I'm correct in assuming that means tons, is a HUGE rice scoop! Standing beside it I felt like I was the size of a little rice grain about to be scooped up and eaten lol.

After we found the giant rice scoop, we decided to head to the Itsukushima Shrine, which is the main shrine on the island right beside the otorii. We wanted to save that for last, so that the tide would have come in more. But it closed at 6 and it was already 5:30, so even though the water wasn't as high as we would have liked it, we went anyway. The shrine was really neat because it was built over the water, so when the tide is in, it looks like its actually floating on the water. It was also very large and complex, one of the largest shrines I've seen so far. And like all the other structures on the island, it was a brilliant orange color.

After we went through the shrine, we wanted to eat dinner at one of the restaurants on the island. Unfortunately, everything on Miyajima closes at around 5 PM. So nothing was open by the time we were ready to eat dinner! So we decided to head back to the mainland and find some dinner there. We took the ferry back to the port, and the whole time me and Lani were wondering if our ice cream shop would still be open. Unfortunately it had closed too! We were very sad and disappointed...where else are you going to find orange and grape ice cream? So we got on the tram and rode back to the main city. We had to go by the hostel again to pick up our luggage, since we had left it there for the day. We got our luggage, said one final farewell to J-Hoppers, and went to find some food! We all just wanted a lot of food because we were so hungry. We came to this italian restaurant and decided to eat there. And oh my goodness, we had so much food! I had a salad and rice and a hamburger patty and shrimp and vegetables and 3 fries (that's all they give you!)...then a big ice cream-filled truffle ball for dessert. And some garlic bread to finish it off! The guys at 2 whole meals, spaghetti with squid tentacles (that's Japanese Italian for you). Since had a couple of hours until we had to catch our night bus back to Osaka, we just hung out in the restaurant and talked. Oh and me and Lani tried our Sakura (cherry blossom) flavored Kit-Kat bar! It was an interesting taste...it smelled like a bouquet of flowers, and it tasted like flowers somehow, but it was like you could smell it as you were eating it. Very strange, it was like you were actually eating flowers. But it was still good...just interesting.

So at 10 PM we went to the bus station to catch our night bus. I didn't know what to expect for the night bus. It was really cheap and it would take us 8 hours to get back to Osaka. But it actually turned out to not be that bad! The seats were just like any charter bus, but they were all spread out so you had your own space, and it was actually pretty spacious. I could almost lay down completely. And when they turned all the lights out, I could actually go to sleep for awhile. So it wasn't bad. I actually felt like I was in a plane, only it was a much bumpier ride. We finally reached Osaka at about 6 AM. But we still weren't home. We had to take the subway to Yodoyobashi and then take the train from there to Hirakata Station. Then we had to take a bus back to the Seminar House. So it wasn't until 7:30 AM that we actually got back to the seminar house. I managed to lay down for about 30 minutes before I had to get ready for class. I was so tired all day! I was so tired from all the walking we did that weekend, and then the long bus ride back...I was completely exhausted!

But the trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima was definitely worth it! It was the best weekend I've had so far. It was the best! Everything was perfect...the weather was nice and we got to see and experience everything we wanted to. Hiroshima is definitely my favorite city in Japan...so far at least. I still have Tokyo for spring break, which is only in ONE week! I can't believe it's already spring break...time goes by so fast when you're having fun. And I definitely had a lot of fun in Hiroshima...I miss it already!

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Photos

Shukkeien Garden
A pretty garden in Hiroshima, and it was such a beautiful day!

In the Garden
Sitting on one of the bridges in the garden

Chozen-kyo
The chozen-kyo looking out over the Takuei Pond and the whole garden

Garden View
The view from the chozen-kyo

Another View
Another view of the garden area

Chozen-kyu Up-Close
A close-up view of the chozen-kyu. You had to take your shoes off before stepping onto it.

Plum Orchards
The plum orchards were just blooming and very beautiful!

Me in the Flowers
Here I am in the little walkway among the plum orchards

Flowers
A close-up of the plum orchard flowers. See, I told you all I should be a photographer!

Trails
Following the trail all around the garden...it seemed to go on forever.

Stream
A small little stream that made a waterfall on the other side

Bridges
The cool bridges on the opposite side of the garden

More of the Garden
Another scenic shot of the garden. The main seifukan is on the right

Not Sure...
I'm not exactly sure what these are...they were near the garden's exit.

Koko-kyo
Me sitting on the koko-kyo, the bridge right in the center of the garden.

Where's Xamena?
Haha see me there in the bushes? This is seriously like a Where's Waldo thing lol

Miyajima-guchi
First view of Miyajima as I got off the tram at Miyajima-guchi

Ice Cream!
This ice cream looked so good. They had an orange and grape one that we wanted to try.

Ferry
On our way to board the ferry to Miyajima

Sayonara...
Leaving the port on the ferry, on our way to Miyajima

Inland Sea
Going across the Inland Sea to reach the island

Comments

[Zpike]

Correct..
Yes you would be correct in assuming it means "tons". "Tonnes" is how they spell it in the UK and France, this is actually the original way of spelling it.