As I mentioned in my previous post, we had to start our 13th day by saying goodbye to Neil, who was headed to Tokyo to spend some time with his friends Dave and Kevin before heading home. The rest of us (Dan, Chelle, Devin, Lauren and myself) were headed to Hiroshima and Miyajima Island, so we caught an 8:39AM Shinkansen to Hiroshima, which would take about 2 hours.
We arrived in Hiroshima and took a local subway train about 30 minutes away to the Miyajima ferry dock. We stood in line with a few hundred other tourists before boarding the ferry, with Dan, Devin and I rushing up to the top deck for some fresh air and sightseeing, while the ladies absconded to the lounge area so the wind wouldn't tussle their hair.
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| The view as the ferry was coming into Miyajima |
The ferry ride to Miyajima only took about 10 minutes, and was free with our JR Rail Passes. We arrived and disembarked, following a lengthy dock and walkway before reaching the terminal. We were all rushing to get ahead of the crowds, but were quite hungry so we only made it about 100 meters before stopping to buy ice cream (don't judge us). We all enjoyed a cone, and continued walking along the shore, enjoying the sites of the island while also encountering many tame deer who would stop at nothing to get a snack, including maps, paper wrappers and any food leavings they could reach. We all got a few photos with the deer, and proceeded on our walk until we reached the famed shrine on the island. Upon reaching the shrine and seeing the crowds, we chose to skip the shrine and proceed to the ropeway up Mt. Misen instead.
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| Lauren and I near the famed Torrii gate in the water near Miyajima |
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| A shot of the 5 tier Pagoda on Miyajima just outside the shrine |
The two way ticket for the ropeway was being sold by a friendly older gentleman in front of a gift shop, and cost 1800 Yen per person. We were warned that the total trip would take approximately 2 hours if we went all the way to the summit, so we all decided we would try our best to keep the experience brief so we could visit the peace dome in Hiroshima afterwards.
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| A beautiful stream on our way to the ropeway. |
The walk up to the ropeway was beautiful, and took about 10 minutes, though we extended this substantially by taking a plethora of photographs and some GoPro footage. We rode the ropeway up to the mid-point and walked up some stairs before boarding the second ropeway car which would carry us to the top of the mountain. We all got off, and found ourselves with a beautiful near 360 degree view of the island of Miyajima, and the city of Hiroshima in the distance across the water. While we were taking photos, an announcement played on a nearby bullhorn warning that the ropeway may be closed due to high winds, so we decided to turn around and head back to the base of the mountain.
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| A panorama from the top of Mt, Misen |
Just as we reached the ropeway station, they announced that it had been closed due to high winds. We waited in line for about 30 minutes with no sign of relief, before deciding to brave the hike down the mountain, an apparent 60 minute trek with very steep stairs.
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| The rugged scenery as we hiked down the mountain |
The hike down the mountain turned out to be beautiful, though we all worried that we would have sore legs the next day after all the drops and shocks as we hiked nearly 2.5km down the mountain and back to town.
Though the hike was a little imposing at times due to the steep steps and gravelly path, we all made it down in a fairly quick 35 minutes, and immediately accosted the nearby street food merchants for some skewers as we were famished. Dan and Chelle wanted to explore the nearby market, so we all took a walk and bought some more street food along the way, including some fish and onion cakes and Karaage (fried chicken) skewers.
At this point it was nearing 3PM, so the group rushed to the ferry terminal so we could get Dan a chance to see the Peace Dome (Atomic Bomb Dome) before we left Hiroshima. We had a hard time getting to the dome quickly and were very short on time, so Dan ended up jogging to and from the dome after snapping a few pictures, while we hailed some taxis to rush us back to Hiroshima station and catch a Shinkansen back to Osaka.
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| Our "DX Platter" of Matsuzaka beef. Delish! |
That evening we all had dinner plans at 7:30PM, so it was important for us to catch our 5:22PM train back to Osaka, leave us time to reach the restaurant near Fukushima station. Our dinner was at a restaurant called Yakiniku M, which serves Matsuzaka beef and allows the customers to grill their own meat on a grill inlaid in the table. We enjoyed a delicious meal of barbecued beef, scrumptious bacon and garlic fried rice that everyone swiftly became addicted to. We ended up ordering 6 bowls as a group before the night was done. We paid our bill, and took a wacky souvenir picture with the friendly manager Kenji-san, before heading back our AirBnB to sleep for the last time in Osaka before parting ways with Devin the next morning and heading towards Kobe.
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| Lauren, Devin and I posing with Kenji-san, who kindly provided prop beer mugs |
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