宮島 - Miyajima

After having breakfast at the hotel in Hiroshima last Wednesday (13th February), I went to the Tourist Information Centre located in the Peace Park to buy a one-day tram and ferry travel pass. For ¥840 this allows you unlimited travel on both the trams and ferries in Hiroshima, meaning I could get to the tram stop at the ferry terminal from central Hiroshima, get a ferry to the island, a ferry back, and another tram back into the city centre all on this one ticket. Smashing.

This is the island of Miyajima, seen from the ferry on the way over:
One of the reasons I decided to visit Hiroshima during my busy schedule was so that I could come to Miyajima. Miyajima was what clinched the decision for me. I have always wanted to come here and see the famous floating torii of the Itsukushima Jinja (Itsukushima shrine). I think I wrote a post about it back in August 2007 so I won't regurgitate the same information about the island's history here.

The first thing you notice as you get off the ferry is the herd of the tamest deer you have ever seen. Having spent the past six months trying to befriend my local stray cats with zero success, to see these wonderfully tame deer was incredible. I resisted going up to them and touching them like some of the other tourists though because I had read that a) they will head-butt you if they feel like it and b) they like to eat clothing, bags, whatever they can get their teeth into.

A few of the pack:
A ten-minute walk from the ferry terminal put me right in front of it, the floating torii. It was breathtaking seeing it in person after spending so long looking at it in photographs. I was lucky enough to see it at a semi-high tide so it did actually appear to be floating on water rather than mud.
The only other thing that I wanted to do on the island was to get the ropeway (cable car) to the top of the highest mountain on Miyajima, Misen-yama (Mt. Misen), 530m. A return ropeway journey set me back ¥1800, nearly ¥1000 more than the cost of travel to and from the island, but it turned out to be money very well spent. Oddly, it was snowing quite heavily on the way up (and down) but at the summit it was clear and sunny.... hmm? Here's the view that was worth every last yen:

And if there was any doubt remaining about the money, this really made it indisputable:
Not only was there a pack of monkeys who were hanging around the ropeway station (sorry for the pun), but they were semi-tame too! You could get within a metre or two of them and they didn't mind being photographed at all. As is never surprising with monkeys, they were just as curious in you as you are with them. They were especially cute when about ten of them would huddle up together for warmth (it may have been sunny up there but, boy, was it chilly).

And that was Miyajima. I arrived back in Hiroshima at around 3pm so it was a very easy day trip. A short blog post like this doesn't do it justice. It was one of the highlights of my trip to Honshu though, it really was. Torii, deer, monkeys, mountain view... fantatstic.