Our Trip to Hiroshima Part I: Miyajima, the Shrine Island

Konnichiwa, Tyson, Audrey, Charlotte, and Christine!

Before our obon holiday was over, we decided to visit Hiroshima.

From Kobe, it's about 2 hours to Hiroshima by a bullet train, but since bullet train is very expensive, we decided to take local trains to Hiroshima, which took us 6 hours! One of the train companies called JR sells this special kind of tickets during holiday seasons called seishun 18 kippu, and with that, you can ride any local trains for a day for only about $25!

We left our home in Kobe around 8am. On our way to Hiroshima, we enjoyed spending time together on the train and watching beautiful scenery outside.

Our first stop was this island called Miyajima, which means the shrine island. You take a 10-minute ferry ride to Miyajima from the mainland.

On Miyajima, there are Itsukushima Shrine and this torii gate that are built on water... Yes, on water! During high tide, it looks like they are floating on water! At low tide, you can walk to the torii gate.

It is ranked as one of the 3 best views in Japan and also is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the National Treasure.

According to the record, it was built in the beginning of the 7th century! People at the time actually calculated and incorporated the tide into building this shrine and the torii gate! How smart is that!?

There were many deer walking around Miyajima just like at Todaiji Temple in Nara! But unlike how we could buy deer crackers and feed them to deer at Todaiji Temple, there were signs in Miyajima that said no feeding of deer.

Miyajima is famous for maple trees, which are called momiji in Japanese. One of their famous souvenirs is momiji manju, which is pastries shaped of maple leaf, filled with azuki (red mung beans) jam or custard. We tried the fried momiji manju! They were so tasty!

This is the machine that they use to make momiji manju! Some stores let you see how they make momiji manju through the window.

They also had fish cake called chikuwa, shaped of maple leaf!

They are also famous for their oysters. We had to try them!

Miyajima is also very famous for shamoji. Shamoji is a special spoon used to serve cooked rice. It is said that a monk from Miyajima invented shamoji. We took a photo in front of the world's biggest shamoji! Haha! Also, we never thought about it until now, but how weird is that we have a special spoon just for the purpose of serving rice!? Oh, and... can you see those coins in front of shamoji!? If you could throw the coin into the little box in front of shamoji, you can have your wish come true.. :P

In Miyajima, there are many temples and shrines besides Itsukushima Shrine.

In Japan, we regard temples as the places with Buddha statues and monks and shrines as the places that worship Shinto religion. Buddhism came from China and India, while Shito started in Japan. When we were reading about Shinto, we learned that Shinto is practiced only in Japan. We thought that was interesting..

Shito believes in many gods. They believe that Amenominakanushi was the first god. From there, many gods came into existence. Gods of Shinto seem to be based on mythology and are manifested in many forms, including nature such as mountains, rivers and animals, natural phenomenons, and even our ancestors.

According to some old writings, the emperors of Japan are the descendants of Amenominakanushi, the first god. There is a genealogy that shows that!? However, of course, the validity of this genealogy has not been proven. The emperors of Japan and their families practice Shinto rites.

Most Japanese do not actively believe in any god. Yet, they visit shrines often, and when they do, they bow their heads and say a little prayer at the alter after throwing some coins into the donation box. It seems like religion to many Japanese is more about old customs than the faith or the philosophy of life.

And before we end this post, we want to explain what torii gate is. There are holy areas in shrines where gods descend. In order to divide the world where gods live and the world where people live, they built torii gate. And just in case you are still not sure what torii gate is, this is it ↓.

Apologies Yuki's mom likes to go on and on about things... It's just that we are having so much fun re-discovering Japan with Tag! He is so patient with Yuki's mom.. and very attentive, too!

On our next post, we would like to talk about our visit to Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome.