The trip to Miyajima wasn't planned but with daylight still plentiful (but fading) McPho and I decided it was worth the trip to Itsukushima Island (aka Miyajima) where the famous Itsukushima Shrine is located (off the mainland in the Seto Insland Sea).

Overall the trip was painless, involving a 30 minute train ride from the Hiroshima JR Station to JR Miyajima-guchi Station and then a 10 minute ride on the JR Ferry to the island. From there it was just a 10 minute walk max along the water to the shrine.

By the time we got onto the island, the Sun had begun to set so our photos ended up coming out a little dark. Fortunately there are lights from the island as well as one from a boat offshore that keeps the shrine viewable into the night.

Built in 593 to honor three female deities, it was later expanded to its current scale by warlord Taira no Kiyomori in 1168. The shrine juts out onto the sea on stilts so it looks like it's floating when the tide is in. Apparently, those photos we see of the shrine 'floating' on water are rare. Most of the time, the shrine is floating on little more than mud, the conditions we experienced.

Other interesting tidbits about the island, in the olden days, no one was allowed to do anything as human as to give birth or die on the island. So those that were about to commit either forbidden acts were quickly ferried back to mainland.

With the moon lighting our way back, we made our journey back East towards Osaka where we would spend our night at the Sumo Backpackers Hostel (book here only if you can't find any openings at J-Hoppers Osaka, even then it's nothing compared to K's House in Kyoto).