Another two part post, this time for another interesting city - Hiroshima. A little bit outside of the Hiroshima city center is an island called Miyajima. Accessible by JR train or by street car, Miyajimaguchi is the port that will get you across to the island. There are two ferry services taking visitors to the Miyajima every ten minutes or so.
Though I realize I'm starting to sound like a broken record - the island is another nice little tourist town. There are street vendors lining the dirt roads selling grilled corn, yakitori, fresh fruits and there is lots of hustle and bustle in general. Like Nara, there are many deer roaming the streets, who are generally people trained.
The main attraction in Miyajima is Itsukushima, the floating torii gate shrine, there is a large torii gate built in the middle of water that often looks like it is floating if the tide is high enough. The rest of the shrine is built on a collection of walkways, almost like a maze-like pier, which is really cool to walk through.
The rest of the town has various other pagodas, shrines, and statues, as seems to be standard with many Japanese towns. It was a great day to visit and I think we there was some sort of ceremony planned for later that day because there were a ton of people camped out along the shore and many photographers with expensive equipment positioned precariously near the water.
In all, definitely worth the trip if you are in the area. Easily visited in a half day or you could easily spend a whole day here. Lots to explore and nice to walk around.
Though I realize I'm starting to sound like a broken record - the island is another nice little tourist town. There are street vendors lining the dirt roads selling grilled corn, yakitori, fresh fruits and there is lots of hustle and bustle in general. Like Nara, there are many deer roaming the streets, who are generally people trained.
The main attraction in Miyajima is Itsukushima, the floating torii gate shrine, there is a large torii gate built in the middle of water that often looks like it is floating if the tide is high enough. The rest of the shrine is built on a collection of walkways, almost like a maze-like pier, which is really cool to walk through.
The rest of the town has various other pagodas, shrines, and statues, as seems to be standard with many Japanese towns. It was a great day to visit and I think we there was some sort of ceremony planned for later that day because there were a ton of people camped out along the shore and many photographers with expensive equipment positioned precariously near the water.
In all, definitely worth the trip if you are in the area. Easily visited in a half day or you could easily spend a whole day here. Lots to explore and nice to walk around.
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