English below.
Day 13 of the trip
We went to the island of the gods, Miyajima, a world heritage site.
The day before, while walking through the Peace Memorial Park, I discovered that there were ferries that could go directly from the Motoyasu River to Miyajima.
It was more like boats than ferries. By the way, for some reason, the sign didn't say ferry or boat.
It was 2,200 yen one way per person, and 4,000 yen for a round trip. There was also a Miyajima visit tax of 100 yen per person. I bought two round-trip tickets without hesitation. It was 8,200 yen for two people.
I found out later that if we had taken a tram, a train, and then another ferry, it would have cost just over 1,000 yen for the two of us for the return trip.
This boat was exclusively for inbound tourists. It seemed like more than 90% of the passengers were foreigners. Maybe I was the only Japanese person there...?
But with a short walk from the hotel, we could have gone to Miyajima without any transfers. It was cheap if you think of it as using a water taxi. It's also contributing to the Japanese economy, isn't it? I wonder how many times I have consoled myself like this.
Miyajima is beautiful. The whole town has a sense of unity, and even the exterior of the Lawson is beautiful. It is truly a World Heritage Site. Not only the small boat we got on, but also the huge ferry, many passengers got off. Even the school trip students were not a big deal. Miyajima is so generous that it can calmly accept such a large number of people.
Even the wild deer are calm. They say that you should not feed or touch the deer, but even at close range, they show no sign of running away. Deer eat paper and plastic bags, so we were warned not to let them eat tickets, but one of the school trip students had a deer eat a discount coupon for a store that he had just received.
On the way to Itsukushima Shrine, there are many shops lined up, and that alone lifts your spirits.
We strolled around and reached the entrance to the shrine, but my husband decided not to see Itsukushima Shrine and tried to make a U-turn. No matter how you look at it, I don't know why we came here. I persuaded my husband, and we visited the shrine. It was so refreshing.
Afterwards, we walked around the town. On the road parallel to the seaside road, there are many shops lined up, and there is a stylish brewery that makes Miyajima's local beer. As expected, we each have a glass. It's a little pricey, but it's delicious.
After that, we got on a van called a bus and headed to Tsutsumigaura Nature Park, where there is a beach that my husband had researched the day before. By the way, we were the only passengers.
We arrived at a facility right in front of the sea, but there was a notice posted saying that it was currently closed. The driver didn't care and disappeared towards the building. He said, "The return bus won't be until 1:00 p.m." It was still morning at this point.
My husband was planning to swim that day, so he started changing into his swimsuit right away. The weather wasn't bad. But it was May, after all. The water was still cold, and even my husband gave up on swimming, as he could barely wet his feet.
It’s still more than two hours until the bus left, but it was too far to walk back. There were no shops or anything nearby. As I was staring blankly at the sea, wondering what to do, an older man strolling along the beach approached us. He seemed to speak a fair amount of English, and we started chatting.
The closed facility near the beach that had apparently been bought by some foreign company. Apparently, a large hotel that would be able to accommodate only the wealthy would be built, costing hundreds of thousands or even millions yen per night. This gentleman was born just before the war ended. We talked about old times and Miyajima. According to the gentleman, the stylish Lawson store had been built fairly recently. Before that, there were no supermarkets, and it was normal for islanders to take the ferry to town to shop.
And the gentleman kindly drove us to the ferry dock. We wanted to do something to thank him, but he said it was okay and drove away. He was truly like a god. I regret not taking a photo with him. As he mentioned where he works, if we go to Miyajima again, I want to bring some New Zealand souvenirs. After that, we had lunch, some sweets, and looked around the souvenir shops. When we were walking, I saw a couple of friends from Auckland walking towards us. However, when I said "Hello!" to them, they looked so confused. I said “It’s me, Hiroko, Hiroko" and took off my sunglasses. They finally realized who I am. What a coincidence! My friend is a person who got the 6th sense, so when we said goodbye, she told me "You're giving off good energy" and I was just happy.
We wanted to stay in Miyajima as long as possible, so we came on the first boat in the morning and booked the later evening boat. But my husband couldn't swim in the ocean, and we gradually ran out of things to do.
I had heard that the boat time could be changed if there was a seat available, so we tried to get on an earlier boat, but it was already full.
We had no choice but to wait at the boat dock, and while we were looking for the next boat, a staff member said, "You can make up for not coming by getting on," so we ended up getting on the boat that was about to depart. However, the boat was still pretty much full, so I ended up sitting apart from my husband. We weren't newlyweds after all, so sitting apart from each other sometimes wasn't so bad.
