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Published: March 27th 2014
We took a day trip from Hiroshima to the island of Miyajima. It is meant to be one of Japan’s most visited places, though it wasn't somewhere we had heard of before coming here. We had however, seen photos of The O-Torii Gate, we just didn't realise where it was.
Even way back in 1643, Miyajima was being described as one of the three most scenic spots in Japan. This was by a Confucian scholar, Shunsai Hayashi, who had written a book about his travels through Japan on foot.
In 1996, World Cultural Heritage status was bestowed on part of the island including the O-Torii Gate, Itsukushima Shrine and the Mt Misen Forest. Mt Misen is the tallest peak on Miyajima at 535m. It is covered with primeval forest and has been considered sacred since 'ancient' times.
Because we have JR Passes, we took the slightly longer but much cheaper route to get to the island. We hopped on a tram to the nearest JR Miyajima line station, then took a train down to the Miyajimaguchi station. We then took the JR ferry the short distance across to Miyajima.
Once on the island we were spoilt with
things to see and do, but with the kids we found ourselves limited by time. Samara wanted to stop and talk to every deer, and while she did a great job of walking everywhere herself, she got slower and slower as the day wore on. She isn't a girl that can be rushed, as her Grandma keeps telling us!
We met the first of Miyajima's many deer not long after getting off the ferry. There were a few deer hanging around the open area by the ferry terminal and pretty much everyone stopped to have a look and take some photos. Initially the girls were wary of them, but it didn't take long for Samara to gain the confidence to pat them. Katrina remained a bit wary, but then the deer were all a lot bigger than her.
We walked along the waterfront towards the shrine and gate, stopping to talk to every deer. Samara was so cute, telling them all not to worry, that Santa was on his way to get them.
When we first got to the O-Torii Gate, the tide had not long turned and was coming back in. Originally commoners were not allowed
to set foot on the island and had to approach the shrine by boat, coming through the gate. They could only do this at high tide as the gate is surrounded by mud flats most of the time.
After a quick morning tea sitting at the edge of the water, fending off a deer trying its luck with our food, we headed up towards the ropeway (gondola) that goes most of the way up Mt Misen. Its a two stage ropeway, the first being in small gondolas and a longer ride, the second being in larger gondolas but a shorter ride. We had the first gondola to ourselves. I imagine the views would have been spectacular on a clear day but it was just so hazy when we were there. A dirty, smoggy haze. Hardly the “flightseeing” that was advertised!
The top 'station' was still at least 30 minutes from the summit, and at a 3 year olds pace, the 30 minutes stretched out a bit further. But give her credit, she did walk most of it herself, we just hauled her up some of the steeper bits. It was a hot walk though. The first main place
of interest along the path was the Kiezu-no-Reikado Hall, where the eternal flame still burns from 1200 years ago. It was lit, the story goes, by Kobo Daishi, a Buddhist priest, who founded the temple on Mt Misen. From the hall and temple here up to the summit was a short, steeper walk through the thinning trees. The summit was a rock strewn plateau with an observatory being built in the middle.
By the time we had eaten (again) and retraced our steps back down to the gondolas and back to the bottom of the hill, it was time to get back to the O-Torii Gate as the tide was in. Typically of course, the light was now wrong and the colours weren't as bright on the gate! But there were hundreds of people standing around photographing the gate from the shrine and the shrine from waterfront path. And of course, more deer.
We opted not to drag the girls round more temples and pagodas and shrines as they were pretty tired. Well, Katrina had ridden most of the way up Mt Misen on Colins back, but Samara was close to hitting the wall with tiredness from her
awesome efforts, and was seriously dragging her feet. Only the sight of another deer in front of us would make her pick up her pace, until she reached the deer of course, then we had to stop so she could pat it and talk to it. It would have been nice to have seen more, but we'll give the kids the break here and rush them round everything we want to see in places like Kyoto, where we really don't want to miss things. We did detour past the worlds largest rice scoop though!
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