From Imabari (今治), we took the Shimanami Highway Bus to Hiroshima. Yes, it goes all the way back on the Shimanami Kaido, passing through many of the places we had been cycling for the last 2 days!
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- Signboard in front of the station: welcome to Imabari, the town of ship-building and towel.
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- Passing by some of the ship-building docks.
Hiroshima City (広島市)
We basically just passed through Hiroshima City to reach our main point of interest, the Itsukushima Shrine. But before that we quickly dropped by the Atomic Bomb Dome (原爆ドーム).
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- Arriving at the Hiroshima Bus Terminal.
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- Atomic Bomb Dome
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- JR station. Does the silver dome mean anything?
Miyajima Island (宮島) – Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社)
World Heritage Site Itsukushima Shrine is known for its Torii gate that appears to “float on water”. There are three different views of it and we would be checking out all of them. But the shrine itself is not the only attraction – it also has free roaming deer, and many restaurants and vendors serving oysters, which is a speciality there.
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- Getting to Miyajima Island requires taking the train from Hiroshima City followed by a short ferry ride.
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- Tourists immediately blocking the view taking photos.
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- Torii gate is there!
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- Some creativity – bits of chocolate looking like deer droppings!
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- Fried bread with whole oyster and curry filling.
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- Grilled oyster vendor. There are many others like this. Great quality.
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- Deer wandering into the shopping area.
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- Hello
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- Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki. You can order oysters on top as extra
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- We killed enough time until low tide, this is when you can walk straight to the Torii gate to see it up close.
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- The ground was still very wet. Waterproof hiking shoes or plastic sandals recommended.
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- The Itsukushima Shrine. We’d be visiting it tomorrow as it’s almost the closing time now.
We took a break and then went back again at night when it was high tide again to see the night view.
