Miyajima Island

Where we enjoyed some fun and relaxing in traditional Japanese luxury.

Dear Jane,

I wanted to go to Hiroshima and go see Miyajima Island while I was in the area, and I convinced Japanese Caleb to join me.

While planning my itinerary for this leg of the trip, I was waffling a little on whether or not Miyajima should be a day trip or an overnight adventure. After bringing Caleb into the fold, we decided not only an overnight but to stay in a ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese inn.

Staying at ryokans can be expensive, as dinner and breakfast are usually included, and they charge per person because of the meals. There’s no financial benefit to staying here with someone like there would be in a regular hotel.

Initially, I had concerns for my budget, but Caleb is extremely talented at finding the luxury experience for the budget traveler’s budget in a way that I’m not. He’s also Genius Level 2 on Booking.com, which both helped the situation.

And, in looking at my budget, it was feasible
because we were splitting a room in Hiroshima, and I would be bringing Caleb omiyage (a gift) when I stayed at his apartment in Shikoku for a night.

The Luxury

We stayed at Jukesio Ryokan, which was the height of luxury for me after spending most of my trip in capsule hotels and hostels.

Jueksio itself was a little outdated, but all the other elements were there: transportation to/from the ferry, luggage transport in case you wanted to walk (a beautiful 25-minute walk), the smallest and oldest little old man and little old lady to carry your ridiculously heavy backpack from the car to your room (there’s no exaggeration when I say my backpack was half their size and they would not let me carry it myself), a private onsen, tea service in your room, a turn down service, multi-course dinner and breakfast, a bathroom sink absolutely stacked with complimentary products, and of course every room had a view of Itsukushima Jinja Otorii, the “floating” torii gate that Miyajima is most famous for.

The private onsen is shared, and when you check in they schedule you access to it. There is also public men’s and women’s baths on the lower level of the building. We had an interesting time in the private onsen. It was L shaped, which made it a better experience, for Caleb and I, as prior to being friends we were co-workers in a supervisor-supervisee relationship. We had a lot of laughs though, as we committed ourselves to keeping our eyes closed and moving backwards.

The private onsen was semi-outdoors, in the sense that to access it you had to leave the building and then renter. The bath itself was rooved, but it was sort of on an enclosed porch. While we were relaxing in it, it started raining. And that sounded lovely, but then there was some lightning and the experience was less lovely. So we ended the bathing early and went to dinner.

The Food

Upon arrival, we were asked to pick our preferred dinner and breakfast times and if we wanted Japanese or Western meals. If you ever go to a ryokan, don’t waste the experience on a Western meal. Unless Western is something you don’t get to eat regularly.

The meals here are very intricate pieces of art, and I was a little worried because I have shellfish allergies. Japan is known for seafood, and Miyajima, in particular, is known for oysters. In fact, Miyajima provides oysters to the rest of Japan.

Caleb booked our reservation here and communicated this allergy as well as some other food based allergies I have to Jukesio, but there was still that little bit of skepticism on my part. Allergies aren’t as common among the Japanese population because they’re mostly homogenized. The government does provide an allergy card that tourists can print and present during their travels, but all of the listed allergies are specific to common Japanese allergies.

We only had one little scare at breakfast. I was drinking my miso soup, and then Caleb started to drink his, and he found the most beautiful clam in it. And then he found two more clams! How could I have missed those clams?

I didn’t.

Breakfast had been set out for us except these soups, which we’d forgotten had been brought out to us with rice after we’d taken our seats. The Jukesio staff know what they’re doing.

Though Katherine can only assume, let me assure you that the shellfish was truly next level. Especially the oysters! Salty, sweet, and slightly tangy. Whenever I can get my hands on seafood from Hiroshima, I open my wallet.

Japanese Caleb

Dinner was beautiful. I didn’t like everything I ate, and for a lot of it, I didn’t know what I was eating. Caleb had tried a few more Japanese foods than I had. I reigned in the food adventures on this trip because of my allergies. But I went all-in here, even trying some of the mushrooms, which I’m generally not a fan of.

Both meals were really fun and interesting! Check out the gallery to see these amazing dishes.

The Island

There are two different ferries that can get you to Miyajima. They are operated by JR West and Aqua Net Hiroshima Co. The Heritage Sea Route, operated by Aqua Net Hiroshima, gives you the option to hop on the ferry in Hiroshima, embarking from near the Peace Park. It’s several thousand Yen in price compared to JR’s several hundred. Neither include the new (Autumn 2023) tourist tax that Miyajima imposed after our visit.

Both ferries dock at the main town on Miyajima. People live all over the island, but this area has the shops and schools, and hotels.

After checking in and checking out our amazing suite, we went out to explore the town. All the day trippers were gone by this point, and a lot of the shops and restaurants were closing up. It was around 5PM.

Caleb was on a mission to purchase a coin purse. Coins are no joke in Japan, and while I was tempted to buy a coin purse myself, I didn’t because I don’t use cash at home.

We stopped in a lot of souvenir shops, but Miyajima also has a lot of local artist shops. There was one where he really liked a coin purse, and he asked the owner when he closed, and the gentleman told us 6PM. We had roughly half an hour.

The tide was coming in, but not high yet, so we were able to walk a bit further onto the beach to take some photos of Itsukushima Jinja Otorii.

We had aimed to go back to that one shop by the time it closed, but we had gotten distracted by our impromptu photo shoot. Caleb is a good Instagram boyfriend. I am not. The store was about a 15-minute walk away, and we had about 5 minutes to get back to it. We hustled, and even though we arrived after closing, the man running the store had stayed open for us. He was standing on the street waiting.

Caleb bought a little black and red brocade coin purse that reminded me of a cootie catcher, the folded paper fortune telling game you played in elementary and middle school. You remember playing with those, right?

With the exception of my space heater, my cootie catcher is the most useful purchase I have made in Japan. Living in a cash dominant country, I usually have about 1/4 lbs. worth of coinage in my possession. So, keeping everything orderly has helped maintain some sanity.

Japanese Caleb

There’s so much more than shopping and taking pictures of Itsukushima Jinja Otorii. Mt. Misen is on Miyajima. It’s the highest peak on the island, and it’s home to Kiezu-no-hi, the eternal flame. This fire was used to light the Flame of Peace in Hiroshima.

The flame was originally lit by Kobo Daishi, the famed monk who brought Buddhism to Japan.

You can hike to the summit of Mt. Misen from the town, or take the Miyajima Ropeway, which is a multi-gondola transportation system. I had wanted to hike the whole thing, as I was led to believe it was a 2-hour hike based on some YouTube videos. It definitely was not. We needed to be on a ferry by 1:30PM, so we bought roundtrip tickets for the Ropeway.

The summit itself is approximately a 40-minute hike from the gondola station, and there are a couple of trails going elsewhere that you can walk. There are a number of holy sites. Kobo Daishi climbed all over the mountain and left spiritually significant spots all-over. We opted for the summit, with a stop to see the eternal flame.

We enjoyed the views and took a photo together at the insistence of an American/American-accented woman who was not a good Instagram boyfriend.

The Advice

Don’t do a day trip to Miyajima. There’s surprisingly a lot to do and see, and we didn’t even scratch the surface because we got there late and left earlyish in the morning. Stay a weekend.

<3 Katherine

PS – I went down a rabbit hole about cootie catchers when I remembered the word(s) for what Caleb’s coin purse reminded me of. They’re generally European in origin and aren’t connected to Japanese fortune telling. Here’s a shortish history of them. Enjoy the rabbit hole.