Hiroshima – Day 2 – Uncle Bob's Scenic Tours

The following day we decided to take a trip to Miyajima Island, just a 45 minute fast ferry ride from near the bomb dome, in the Sea of Japan.

Diane doing a Kate Winslet Titanic impression.

Mount Misen on Miyajima Island (more about this later)

One of the things the island is well known for are the incredibly tame deer.

They wander freely on the island and don’t mind being stroked but be very aware if you have food in your as they can bite through anything to get at it.

As with all coastal areas in Japan there are Tsunami warning signs, giving advice on what to do, escape routes and how high you are above sea level.

On we went through the narrow streets where there were many souvenir shops and street food vendors.

Along the seafront and through the Torii gate , guarded by some lions.

The famous floating shrine and Torii gate, first built in 593 and rebuilt in 1168. At low tide you can walk out to it and at high tide the gate appears to be floating along with the adjacent shrine buildings.

Nearby was a stunning g 5 storey pagoda, built in 1407.

A ropeway or cable car takes visitors upwards and a nearby sign read, ‘ropeway entrance 60m’, so off we went through the gate. Past some more shops and the fire station was an old man selling tickets and so we bought 3 single tickets. Didn’t buy returns as we planned a pleasant walk back down.

On we walked , past some lovely ponds and streams.

We had been walking about 10 minutes when a sign read, ‘ropeway only 10 minutes walk, or perhaps 7 minutes if you run a little’.

So after another 15 minutes a sign informed us it was only 100 steps to the ropeway. What it didn’t say was that the 100 steps were at a very steep angle, so we clambered up holding onto the handrail for our lives and were finally there.

Once in the cable car Diane started to look a bit nervous, “I hate cable cars” she said nervously. Bit late now thought Gary and myself!

It was a very long ride but soon we saw the cable car station coming into view. “Phew, I didn’t like that” said Diane and her face went ashen as she saw the sign saying ‘middle station’ !

Off the car we got and Diane said she would walk down and not go any further. Anyway it quickly became apparent there was no path down and as we had single tickets the only way was up!

Another long ride to the top of the mountain.

Diane was adamant she would walk down with Gary. That will take a couple of hours I thought, i cant do that with my dodgy knees, hips, ankles etc so I bought a ticket down and watched as they set off.