Strangers on a Sushi Train: Miyajima and the Floating Shrine

After two nights in Hiroshima, we took a tram for one hour, to a town nearby. This town had the closest Hostel we could find to the Island of Miyajima... it was literally next to the ferry. We slept in a "Japanese Style 6 Bed Dorm", I am pretty sure I just booked the normal Dorm... but when in Japan..... It turned out ok though, as there was no one in the room with us, and sleeping on a futon is fun!

When inside the Hostel, you are requried to where these "indoor crocs" I loved that we matched :)

Shota and I on the Ferry heading over to the Island... it was about ten minutes.

Miyajima Island is home to the famous floating gate, for Itsukushima Shrine. The island is also home to more Deer... although they are not selling rice cakes to feed to them, like they do in Nara...

Shota made friends with a Deer to... quite funny! (He has a map in his hand, not food)

We also discovered the best coffee shop... so quickly stopped for coffee and cake :)

There also used to be monkeys living on the Island... but they were all taken away, as they had begun attacking tourists, for food. I was quite happy about the fact there were no monkeys... especially if they in the past had attacked people! There are a few temples and shrines on the Island, here a few pictures...

There are still many trees in the process of changin colour and lots of leaves on the ground....

The Island is made up of beautiful mountains and beaches... although its too cold at the moment to go swimming. There is a ropeway that takes you to the top of Mt Mizen... we instead decided to "climb" the Mountain... it took an hour and ten minutes to reach the top, a good effort I thought as the track was majority all stairs!!

We then decided to walk back down the Mountain as well, as we were feeling "so fit" ha... ha... but I was glad that we did, as we met an Australian couple that had been staying at the same Hostel in Hiroshima as us... They were really interesting and were at the end of a eleventh month round the world trip! Crazy!!

Miyajima is also famous for Oysters, Sea eel and tiny cakes in the shape of an elm leaf… I wasn’t too keen on the Sea eel… but the Oysters and the elm leaf cakes were definitely appealing.

Ther man in the Oyster shop looked a little crazy... but was kind enough to smile for the camera :) The Oysters were amazing to! It was three for 500 YEN, roughly $6... tasted so good though!