Miyajima is a little island off the coast of Hiroshima, and a short train and ferry ride took us to this awesome place.
Miyajima is famous for its temples and shrines, and the little village on the island puts a lot of effort into retaining its classically Japanese Edo-era look.
The day we chose to visit Miyajima was one of the coldest days during our trip, we even had a bit of snow falling while we were there. First we wandered around the village before taking the ropeway up to Mt Misen, from where you have fantastic views across the whole area. A little walk later we came to the Eternal Fire Hall, where a fire has been burning uninterruptedly for more than 1,200 years. We lit a candle with the fire – without being able to read Japanese we chose one that had a friendly house-like symbol to start with, so we just hope it was a good choice. There’s plenty of opportunity to do happy-couple things (such as lighting a flame by pressing two opposite buttons at the same time) and as often in Japan there are camera holders in front of them to shoot photos via timer.
Miyajima: famous for its Floating Gate.
Deer – walking around freely.
Ropeway on the way up to Mt Misen.
Our candle (on the left) lit with the eternal flame, which has been burning for more than 1,200 years.
Let’s press a button to lit a flame to take a cute couple photo.
My personal highlight was baking our own momiji manjū cakes. They are small cakes in the shape of a maple leaf, filled with sweet bean paste. They are on sale throughout Miyajima village, but at the top ropeway station you can make your own. The instructions were fully in Japanese, but the chef showed us exactly what to do, and with lots of arm waving and other gestures we were able to bake a full set of eight cakes all by ourselves. You can take them home afterwards, and baking them yourself is not only much more fun than buying them, it’s also cheaper. A total win-win situation!
We absolutely loved Miyajima – don’t miss out on it if you ever visit Hiroshima.
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