The JR Ferry
Miyajima is a short train ride from Hiroshima, then a 10-minute ferry. The JR ferry, so it’s on the JR Pass. Breakfast was doughnuts from the station, eaten on the train.
The Torii at High Tide
We were on the island before 8am, before the day-trippers. The deer were already out, wandering the streets like they own them, which they do.
And then the great torii, standing in the sea at high tide. It’s 16 metres tall, painted fresh after a three-year restoration that only finished at the end of 2022. With the morning light and almost no one else around, it was perfect.
Up Mt Misen
We saved the shrine for low tide in the afternoon, and went up the mountain first. Through Momijidani Park, along a little stream, to the ropeway station.
At the top station, the clouds were sitting on the island, then they cleared, and you could see the islands of the Inland Sea spread out below.
To the Summit
From the ropeway, it’s about 30 minutes on foot to the summit, up stone steps through the forest. In September. The weather was so damn bloody hot, and yet the Korean and Chinese tour groups around us seemed to be enjoying it. How?? And Minmin was hiking in a dress, which made it doubly worse.
On the way up are the halls of Misen’s temple, founded by the monk Kukai 1,200 years ago, including the hall where a fire he lit has supposedly been burning ever since. It’s also the flame used to light the Flame of Peace in Hiroshima.
The summit is a pile of giant boulders, with a lookout on top and views all the way around. We were dripping, but it was worth it.
On the way down, we passed the temple halls again.
Back down by noon, just in time for low tide at Itsukushima Shrine.
Information About Mt Misen
Two ropeways take you most of the way up Mt Misen (535 m), then it's about 30 minutes on foot to the summit, past the halls Kukai founded. Allow half a day.