Miyajima 2019: The ferry to Miyajima

Not far from the city of Hiroshima is the famous island of Miyajima. The island’s official name is Itsukushima but everyone calls it Miyajima, which translates to “shrine island”, because it is home to one of Japan’s most famous shrines. To reach Miyajima from Hiroshima I rode a local train down to Miyajimaguchi Station and then walked to the ferry port where I boarded a JR ferry that would take me to the island. The Japan Rail Pass covers both the train and the JR ferry, so if you’ve got a rail pass then this is the way you’ll want to reach Miyajima. Alternatively, there are direct boat rides between the city of Hiroshima and Miyajima that you can take, so if you are day-tripping to Miyajima from Hiroshima and need to maximize your time then this might be a better option, but be aware that the Japan Rail Pass does not cover the boats directly from Hiroshima.

Once it has departed the port, the JR ferry only takes around 12 minutes to reach Miyajima. In the strait between the island and the mainland you can see a large oyster farm floating on the water.

As the ferry nears Miyajima’s port it passes fairly close to Itsukushima Shrine, the island’s main attraction. The two photos above are both zoomed-in but even if you don’t have a zoom lens on your camera you can get a pretty good view of both the shrine and the village on the island. Soon enough the ferry had docked at the port and my time on Miyajima had begun.