Posted by Jess
14 April 2011
After the Peace Memorial Museum and Park, I headed back to Hiroshima Station and asked for the directions to Miyajima. Again I found that the station staff had great English and they had everything printed up that I needed to find my way.
I grabbed the next train to Miyajima-guchi Station (About a 25 minute ride) and then walked down to the port to get on the ferry. The ferry is run by Japan Rail as well so it's just like public transport, which I thought was pretty neat.
As we crossed to Miyajima Island (only about a 10 minute ride), it was nice to cool down on the water and enjoy the view. With the mountains as the backdrop, it was gorgeous. We landed and I started walking along the pedestrian walkway up to Istukushima Shrine. I had read in the guidebooks about the deer that shared the island and how comfortable they were with people, but I was unprepared for what I saw! There were probably 50 deer along the path, sleeping, eating, walking. And they were walking up to people and eating their food, sometimes just digging in the purses or bags that people had sitting next to them. I didn't take the time to feed one or pet one, but I snapped a few shots of them.
The walk up to the shrine was short - about 10 minutes. It was along the water and had many souvenir shops and street vendors. The attraction at Itsukushima Shrine is the Floating Torii Gate. The island of Miyajima was considered sacred in ancient times and so the shrine was built protruding from the island so that commoners would not set foot on the sacred land but could still worship there. The Floating Gate was for much the same purpose and you had to take a boat through the gate to approach the shrine. Today people are allowed on the island, but births or deaths near the shrine are still considered forbidden on this sacred land. Pregnant women leave the island and go to mainland Japan before giving birth and there are no burials on the island itself.
14 April 2011
After the Peace Memorial Museum and Park, I headed back to Hiroshima Station and asked for the directions to Miyajima. Again I found that the station staff had great English and they had everything printed up that I needed to find my way.
I grabbed the next train to Miyajima-guchi Station (About a 25 minute ride) and then walked down to the port to get on the ferry. The ferry is run by Japan Rail as well so it's just like public transport, which I thought was pretty neat.
As we crossed to Miyajima Island (only about a 10 minute ride), it was nice to cool down on the water and enjoy the view. With the mountains as the backdrop, it was gorgeous. We landed and I started walking along the pedestrian walkway up to Istukushima Shrine. I had read in the guidebooks about the deer that shared the island and how comfortable they were with people, but I was unprepared for what I saw! There were probably 50 deer along the path, sleeping, eating, walking. And they were walking up to people and eating their food, sometimes just digging in the purses or bags that people had sitting next to them. I didn't take the time to feed one or pet one, but I snapped a few shots of them.
The walk up to the shrine was short - about 10 minutes. It was along the water and had many souvenir shops and street vendors. The attraction at Itsukushima Shrine is the Floating Torii Gate. The island of Miyajima was considered sacred in ancient times and so the shrine was built protruding from the island so that commoners would not set foot on the sacred land but could still worship there. The Floating Gate was for much the same purpose and you had to take a boat through the gate to approach the shrine. Today people are allowed on the island, but births or deaths near the shrine are still considered forbidden on this sacred land. Pregnant women leave the island and go to mainland Japan before giving birth and there are no burials on the island itself.
This was a beautiful, peaceful place. I wish that it had been high tide when I was there as that would enhance the "floating" effect of the gate. If we had the time, I think it would be great to spend a night on Miyajima and enjoy the beautiful views at sunset of the shrine and the mountains.
I rode the ferry back to the mainland and headed back to Hiroshima Station via train. Once there I caught the next shinkansen to Tokyo and was home by about 10pm. It was a long day for sure with 9 hours on trains and only about 4 hours of sightseeing, but so worth it. I found the Hiroshima area to be so lovely and relaxed - a very different feel from the usual hum of Tokyo.
Kanpai!
Jess
6:46 PM |
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