Day 22: Tuesday, April 29th
Luke and I checked out of the Hotel Keihan Universal Tower and jumped on the local metro to the Shin-Osaka Station so we could catch our 8:41 AM Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima.
We arrived at the Shin-Osaka Station a little early, so I went shopping! I love all their tiny treats. My favorites were the honey butter breads and anything with matcha!
[Snacks]
[Shinkansen]
We arrived in Hiroshima at 10:00 AM and walked over to the Sheraton Grand Hotel, which was connected to the train station. We stored our bags and then sat in the lobby for a few minutes. I then saw a gentleman dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase. It was our tour guide, Seiichiro ("Sei") Matsuda! He told us about our plan for the next seven hours and we were very excited to explore our final stop!
[Part I of this tour will be down on Miyajima Island and Part II will be in the northern area]
We left the Sheraton Grand Hotel and headed to the metro station to catch a train to a port where we would take a ferry to Miyajima island (aka "Shrine Island"). As we were traveling Sei told us a little about himself. He is orignaly from the area around Hiroshima and was born just a year after the bomb was dropped. He worked for Toyota as an engineer for his entire career and became a tour guide after he retired. We asked him if he had ever been to the United States and he said that Toyota moved him and his family there for five years in the early 1990s. We asked him where and he said Irvine! Guys! We lived in Irvine in the 1990s! I grew up there! How crazy is that?! Such a small world!
We took a ferry from the mainland to Miyajima island. This island is famous for it's beautiful forest, hiking trails, the Itsukushima Shrine, and the Daishō-in Temple.
As we approached the island we started to see one of Japan's Three Best Views: the floating torii gate at the Itsukushima Shrine.
We got off the ferry and made our way along the shore to the Itsukushima Shrine.
[The Floating Torii]
During high tide you can take a boat ride through the gate and at low tide you can walk all the way out to the torii gate.
After seeing the torii, we went into the main area of the shrine. The buildings are built on stilts and at high tide the ground is covered in ocean water. The island is sacred to the Shinto and it's believe that the first shrine was built on the island in the 6th century AD.
After exploring the gorgeous Shinto Shrine, we headed up onto the sacred mountain, Mount Misen, to visit the Daishō-in Buddhist Temple. This temple was founded in 806 AD by Kūkai, who is one of the most famous monks in Japanese history as he is the founder of Shingon Buddhism. Fun fact: The 14th Dalai Lama visited the temple in 2006 to celebrate the 1200 year anniversary!
We made our way up the mountain through this beautiful winding path.
We got to the end of the path and Sei told us to look down and not look up until he said to. He lead us over to an area and said look up! And this is what we saw:
It's a beautiful, intricate temple surrounded by trees. Pictures don't do it justice, but it's gorgeous!
We continued up the mountain, past more buildings, and then we arrived at Henjokutsu Cave. Before we entered the cave, Sei told us about the Shikoku Pilgrimage. He said to complete the pilgrimage you have to visit 88 temples on the island of Shikoku. However, that is very difficult for most people. So this cave has 88 statues that each represent a temple from the pilgrimage. Walking through the cave is considered to be equivalent to completing the pilgrimage and you will be able to enjoy the same spiritual benefits.
After completing our pilgrimage we headed back down the mountain to the shopping district.
[Happy statues]
Sei told us that the deer here do not bow and we should not attempt to feed them.
Sei told us to walk through the shopping district and get something to eat and he gave us a time to meet him at the ferry.
We found a few souvenirs, snacks, and lunch before walking back to the port.
[Low tide]
We made it back to the ferry just in time! It was a nice 10 minute ride to back to the mainland.
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