I got up bright and early to take the train to Miyajimagochu, the port town near Miyajima, which is at the base of Mt. Misen. Taking the ferry across was a quick and easy experience.
I got there at 8:30, and nothing was actually open yet. It seems that places in Japan open around 10:00 rather than 8 or 9ish like home in Canada. I was starving though, so as I walked through the beautiful yet shuttered streets, I pounced on the only café that was open. Their main fair was the buns that I had been avoiding at the train station, but at this point I was desperate. A bacon and onion bun with coffee did the trick and I was able to kill some time. High tide was at 11:30am so I had a while before visiting the shrine and floating torii.
I can’t really begin to describe how beautiful this island is, so I hope my photos do it some justice.
The mountain took around 2 hours to walk up, and with my bad knee that wasn’t really an option. So I paid to take the gondola the most of the way up the mountain, and then it was a 30 minute walk from the gondola to the summit.