We left home on Friday morning at like 7.42am on a bus to Shizuoka Station to catch the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima. Arrived at Hiroshima at about 12.40pm and then had to catch the train to Miyajima-Guchi and then the ferry to Miyajima, an island.
Miyajima
Miyajima is known for its Torii Gate, one of the most popular places in Japan to photograph. It's a big orange gate in the water. Even if you don't know what it is, you have probably seen it.
We walked out to the gate through the water the whole time trying not to get my skirt wet but also trying not to show too much....turns out if we waited about another hour we could've walked out to it on the sand, but our way was much more fun. We started posing because we realised we would've been in at least 50 other people's photos...all the better I think.
We had great weather and watched the sun setting over the Torii Gate, it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
Our hotel was a room with two mattresses on the floor and no shower, but the owner was very sweet and brought us green tea. The weird thing about our hotel is that it had a curfew, we had to be inside by 10pm. It seems the whole island had a curfew, everything shut at about 7pm. I choose to believe something magical was happening on the island of Miyajima after 10 that we weren't allowed to see..something to do with all the deers that wander around.
To top off the no shower thing, there was only a Japanese style toilet...I have done the squatting thing, I'm over it..I want the western style toilet! I was so sleepy in the morning, it's easier to just take off your pants when you're in that state, especially with the whole near miss incident a few days before...I was playing it safe!
So after that we decided to cancel the second night and stay in Hiroshima...
The day we left Miyajima though was great, we went on this rope way, and we saw the coast and the islands, mountains, and when you get to the top there are cute monkeys everywhere, so it was all worth it. Everything about the island is just beautiful!
