Manga Tour Day 8, Pt. 2: Miyajima

The next stop on Day 8 of our Pop Japan Travel / Mind Over Manga tour was Miyajima, a scenic and sacred island just a few miles away from Hiroshima. Noted as one of the three most scenic places in Japan, Miyajima is also the home of the Itsukushima Shrine, a Shinto shrine that is also noted as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the world famous red torii gate that is usually seen floating in the ocean in numerous postcards.

Miyajima is a popular tourist spot, and yes, it has its touristy side, but it is undeniably lovely, lush and charming. There are few buildings that are taller than three stories, no chain stores and lots of tree-lined scenic trails. It also features a lot of tame but hungry deer. The deer are so infamous for munching paper, that the JR train line has issued a warning to tourists that they will not replace tickets chewed up by the Bambi-wannabes.

Going to Miyajima was a nice counterpoint for the day after seeing the devastation of Hiroshima's past at the Peace Museum, and after several days in the bustling cities of Tokyo and Osaka. It was rainy and cloudy again, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the tastes and sights of Miyajima for an afternoon.

After lunch featuring two of Miyajima's specialities, oysters and anago (conger eel) and a snack of freshly made momiji manju (maple leaf-shaped cakes with red bean filling), we took a stroll down Miyajima's Omodesanto, the island's main street of shops. While there, we also saw the world's biggest rice paddle and our guide Ben spotted some bottles of curry soda and wasabi soda. They were only 200 yen a bottle, but after our lunch, no one felt up to sampling these odd carbonated concoctions. Normally, I'd be game, hey, I already ate grilled mystery meat in Osaka and kaiseki cuisine in Kyoto, plus grilled oysters in Miyajima, so I figured it was someone else's turn to be the gutsy gastronome.

We headed to Itsukushima Shrine, one of the main attractions of the island. While most of the temples we visited in Kyoto featured Buddhist deities, Itsukushima is devoted to Shinto, which is kind of like the native nature-based religion of Japan. To maintain the purity of the Shrine, births and deaths are forbidden on the island, and there are no graveyards either. We were there at low tide, so we were able to walk out to the huge red torii and take photos beneath it.

Miyajima is a really special place for me. It's where my great aunt and her family live and run a coffee shop, where I have visited with my grandparents and parents since I was a child, and it's where I first fell in love with manga, when my aunt gave me a copy of Nakayoshi. So after two prior visits to Miyajima over 30 years, I can honestly say that this place has not changed much at all -- and that is a good thing.

We took a ride up two ropeway cars and a hike up Mount Misen to visit a few shrines, or what I call the "Japanese Stairmaster®". We met up with two Japanese girls who took the same journey up the mountain as we did, and we met them again on the way down. While our group got pretty winded and sweaty making the trek up to the first shrine, those two girls (in flip-flop slippers, no less!) looked as fresh as a spring breeze and barely wilted after climbing up to the peak of Mount Misen, a point much higher than we had time to venture. Go figure!

After an much too brief visit with my aunt and second cousin, I ran for the JR ferry back to the train station, to catch a local train back to Hiroshima. Next stop on our tour: Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki dinner at Gundam-themed Okonomiyaki Sankanou.

Image credit: © Deb Aoki