Up bright and early to shovel as much onigiri and other breakfast goodies as possible into us before our short journey outside Hiroshima city. As we were travelling across the city on the Hiroden (tram) towards Hiroden Nishi-Hiroshima terminus, Neil commented about the houses built into the hillsides he could see. Sadly, just over a month later, Hiroshima was hit with heavy rains and some of those houses we had seen had been destroyed by landslides. The day we were visiting Miyajima Island, however, was the hottest of 2014 and the heat was almost unbearable at 39 degrees! Officially, the island is actually named Itsukushima but because the island is so closely related to its key shrine (Itsukushima), it’s nickname is Miyajima which is Japanese for ‘shrine island’ and that’s what it’s more commonly known as.
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