26/3/18 I left early and caught a ‘street car’ to get to Miyajima station, cheaper than the JR train as advised by the hostel owner. It is like a tram, stopping at every station. It takes a bit longer than the JR train as it stops everywhere. Japanese are so well educated, no one is talking on public transport, everyone sits on the smallest space possible. You enter from certain doors, you exit from another On buses, funilly enough, you enter from the back, get off from the front door, the exact opposite of Sydney buses. And Japanse pay when they get off, or in my case, at the last stop of the line, at the officer at the station on the way to the ferry as I want to go to Miyajima, an island 10 min away by ferry, famous for its orange shrine in the water.
Miyajima is beautiful. I drop my bags at the guest house so that I can go straight to the moutain with the funicular to Mt Misen. Quite a walk up again to reach the top, but the view is great from up there. Plenty of stops to rest on the way as well. Later I walk along the shrine, take some pics and explore the little streets full of souvenirs shops and restaurants. In Miyajima, you make easily new furry friends – a lot of deers walk everywhere, not just in the forest area. They share the street and shop alleys with the locals and tourists who get many pictures really close as the deers don’t bother at all. It became such an icon locally that you can buy souvenirs like pouches, teddy bears or other gadgets on the deer theme.
Miyajima is also famous for its sweet pastry filled with red beans in a maple leaf shape ‘momji manju’.
The guest house owner was really friendly and gave me some advice and recommendations, also about places to eat dinner. 2 spots I am interested to go: the first one is a place where they serve a speciality dish made of fish and ramen, the second one a good traditional japanese restaurant. The first one was really small and was full when I got there so I went to the other one, where I had to wait about 15min to get a table, but it was worth the wait 🙂 I tried eel for the first time and ordered a pear cocktail from Hiroshima. There were many things on my plate I had no idea what it was but as long as it is tasty I don’t mind.
As it was dark when I left I didn’t want to stay out late so I went back to the guest house where I made my own traditional futon bed. A Spanish girl arrived later and we chat for 2h before going to bed.
