Our 279th entry in this blog is Rei and Sai’s first time trip to Miyajima Island, in Hiroshima, Japan. Itsukushima is an island in the western part of the Inland Sea of Japan, located in the northwest of Hiroshima Bay. It is popularly known as Miyajima, which in Japanese means “Shrine Island”.

We stayed at Coral Hotel where it’s very near, just a minute walking distance to the port where ferry boats can take you to Miyajima Island.

The boat ride is only around 10 minutes. You can even clearly see the island while you are still at the port. Looking at the shrine and the big orange torii gate will make you feel excited! 🙂

Miyajima is famous for the Itsukushima Shrine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The shrine was considered a sacred site for a long time, it is possible that locals built a simple shrine on the site before the complex was built in 593 AD.

The place is quiet and well-preserved. we arrived here late in the afternoon to visit the place and see it light up later.

The island of Itsukushima/Miyajima, including the waters around it (part of Seto Inland Sea), lies within Setonaikai National Park. This sea is affected by strong tides.

There are a lot of deer walking around the area, and they are very polite. They bow down to you and greet you as you walk passed them 🙂

This is the famous Torii or gate. The O-Torii gate is made of wood and is supported by four pillars. The pillars are not buried in the seabed, but use their own weight to stand. I was amazed by that fact that they are not buried. I would imagine them floating during high tides. hehe 🙂

It is so nice to walk around the area. The wind from the sea is very refreshing. We spent a lot of time just watching the waters and listening to the birds on top of the trees.

The gate is strengthened by the ground around it, and stones and pebbles inserted into the top. The current O-Torii gate was renovated in 2022. It is such an unusual and special site to us that we kept on staring at it. 🙂

Ate Rei and Sai were also busy collecting shells, but just to touch and look at them. We did not take it out from the shore as they are happy to be on the shore. hehe

It is almost sundown and we are excited to see how this place is going to be lighted. But we don’t plan to stay long because it is getting very cold at night.

And the light-up indeed is amazing. Not just from the lights made to highlight the gate, but the sky lighted up so nicely. My photos did not do justice at all compared to what we really saw looking at the gate. 🙂

The gate is illuminated at night by powerful lights on the shore. I am not sure though if they will turn off the lights or just stay lighted up until sunrise. We also went inside the Itsukushima Shrine, I posted it in another album though. 🙂

We went back the next day, mainly to climb Mount Misen. We arrived at the island already late yesterday, and we wanted to climb the sacred mountain, so we went back early. This is now our second day. 🙂

After climbing Mount Misen (also separated that one in another album blog), we reached back at the torii gate where it is super low tide. 🙂 At low tide, the bottom of the sea is exposed past the island’s torii. At high tide, the sea covers all the previously exposed seabed mud and fills areas underneath the shrine boardwalk. We also ended our day with a coffee ice cream, well, vanilla ice cream for Sai. 🙂
And that is our quick visit to Miyajima Island. We really loved our walking trip to Itsukushima Shrine, and our hike to Mount Misen. We would love to visit again someday. 🙂