Our 7 Month Travel Blog

Miyajima or Itsukushima, is a small island in Hiroshima Bay, about 40 minutes from the city, known for its forests and ancient temples.

We travelled to the island by ferry from Miyajimaguchi.

The island is quite an enchanting place, with its Itsukushima ‘floating’ shrine, Mount Misen and deer.

We visited the shrine initially at the start of the day, whilst the tide was low, and then returned later on at sunset, seeing it float!

Miyajima island is also known for its large population of friendly Sika deer.

In local folklore, the deer were once considered messengers from the gods, and killing them was punishable by death.

The deer would get very close….they also posed very well for photos!

Away from the shrine, we also walked through the shops on the island. There were a number of quaint little streets.

There were also some really nice Japanese gardens.

We then started heading up to Mount Misen. We trekked up for a little bit past a few small waterfalls…

And then we got the ropeway the rest of the way up!

When we got to the top the views were pretty incredible!

It was then time for us to head back down and home but first we needed to have some of Miyajima’s speciality sweet, momiji manju (a Japanese maple leaf-shaped pastry). We couldn’t resist!

And then we needed a deer selfie….

Bye bye Miyajima!