Our 278th entry in this blog is our trip to climb Mount Misen in Itsukushima, Miyajima, Hiroshima, Japan. 🙂

We walked through the old houses and restaurants in the area to reach the Miyajima Ropeway. We were thinking of riding the ropeway going up, and hiking the trails going down. Or maybe the other way around.

The sky is really cloudy and we were afraid that it might rain while we are still hiking up. So we decided to ride the ropeway going up to make the trip faster. 🙂 And indeed, it rained. We waited at Shishi-iwa Station for the rain to stop, then we went out to explore.

Mount Misen is the sacred mountain on Itsukushima in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima, Japan, and is the highest mountain on the island at 535 m. It is situated within the World Heritage area of Itsukushima Shrine.

The sea around the island (Seto Inland Sea) and all of the island are within Setonaikai National Park.

The north side of the mountain is covered by primeval forest which is protected by Hiroshima prefecture. The foot of the mountain has Momijidani-Kōen. This has full of momiji trees that turns red during autumn.

You need to hike your way up to the summit as the ropeway does not reach there. According to the website of Miyajima Tourist Association, Mount Misen was visited by Kūkai in the year 806, the 1st year of the Daidō era. Since ancient times, the mountain has been an important destination for religious visitors.

Ate Rei wants to stay behind when we reached a temple. She actually hates hiking. haha. But she tries her best to reach places within her limits. Our little Sai is still very energetic and wants to reach the high peak. So I stayed with Ate Rei, while Papa Dave and Sai went to the summit.

This is the Kiezu-no-hi (The eternal flame). This is the holy fire said to have been started by the Japanese Buddhist monk Kobo Daishi, who founded the Daishoin Temple in 806. It still burns today and the holy water boiled by this fire is used to treat diseases. This fire was used as the pilot light for the ‘Flame of Peace’ in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

After Papa Dave and Sai went back from conquering the summit (it’s actually not far from where we waited, hehe), we started our descent.

At 500 meters above sea level, Mount Misen is the highest peak on Miyajima. On clear days, it affords spectacular views of the Seto Inland Sea and as far as Hiroshima City.

There are also a number of Buddhist structures near the peak.

There are three hiking trails leading up Misen: the Momijidani Course, Daisho-in Course and Omoto Course. If I remember it right, we are taking the Daisho-in one.

Of the three, the Daisho-in Course offers the nicest views and is not as steep as the other two. But since it was raining earlier, some tracks are really slippery.

The Momijidani Course, while the shortest, is also the steepest, leading mostly through the forest. Using any course, it takes 1.5 to 2 hours to reach the summit. We then reached the foot of the mountain and we are all heading to the toilet. haha 🙂

And that is our quick hike at Mount Misen. We really enjoyed it. Although it rained, and made some tracks slippery, but the views and the fresh smell of rain and nature made it very relaxing. 🙂 We hope to be back soon. Next time, we are going to try hiking up, and maybe still hiking down as well.