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One week after Amanohashidate I visited hiroshima for 'nihon sankei' #2; Itsukushima shrine in miyajima, hiroshima prefecture. It was supposed to be a 2 days one night trip, but because november-december is high season for tourist visiting japan we couldn't find ourselves a hotel room so we decided on a one day trip, beside the main attraction of this prefecture is the miyajima where the shrine located :p
Actually I visited this shrine 3 years ago when I first arrived in Japan, but i was so unfortunate that the toori gate was under maintenance so they covered it. I promised to come back again and I did. I visited others hiroshima attraction during my first visit such as the atomic bomb museum, so this trip is solely for the sake of that Toori gate. To hiroshima from Osaka is not cheap (at least for student like me); return shinkansen ticket are 17160 yen ( with student & return trip discount). Bus trip takes 5 hours and cost 5000 yen one way ( if I'm correct).
From Hiroshima station take the local train to Miyajima guchi station (410 yen) around 30 minutes, then from miyajima guchi station walk 5 minutes to the miyajima ferry pier; return ferry tickets are 360 yen. If you have japan rail pass you can get on the JR ferries for free. there are two ferries operator from this pier. It takes 5-10 minutes to reach miyajima pier.
Beware of the deers!!! they are everywhere and very aggressive, especially when you have foods with you. Itsukushima shrine is a 10 minute walks from the pier, it was very crowded with local and foreign tourists when i visited. You can smell the grilled squid, oyster and other seafood along the walk which are very tempting.
The toori gate itself is breathtakingly beautiful, stand tall on the calm sea water. I approve this place as one of the japan's best views. We were blessed with a nice weather that day, which we found very rare, usually bad weather always accompany us in our previous trips. Admission fee to the itsukushima shrine is 300 yen (If my memories serve me right). There is a ropeway to the top of the mountain which cost 1800 yen for return trip, We didn't take the ropeway, we thought that it is too expensive, we prefered to spend that 1800 on oysters.
After miyajima we went back to the hiroshima station to eat hiroshima style okonomiyaki, the famous local cuisine. this hiroshima style okonomiyaki differs from the osaka style is they use less fluor, more cabbage and a choice of noodles, soba or udon. I like the hiroshima style, I wish i bought some from hiroshima station.
Matsushima in sendai will be the next nihon sankei that I'm going to visit. I plan to visit in december 28th but I already have 2 winter vacation with friends in January to shirakawa go and kinosaki, so I will safe matsushima for spring or summer.
