Thursday, 1 May 2025

1st May - Miyajima Island and Sansuien Ryokan, Yuda Onsen

A great day's travelling. We found ourselves awake close to our normal NZ time, so rather early in local time. The guest room had been very comfortable, and we'd slept well on the futons, as we normally do. We chose to get up and about so we could catch an early ferry to Miyajima Island, giving ourselves plenty of extra time there.

Last night we'd found that the JR ferry had crossings much earlier than the website had indicated, so we were able to get across using our JR Pass. We were on the island by 7:15, a ridiculously early hour for us. First sight to see was the huge torii gate in the sea off Itsukushima Shrine. This is one of the iconic  sights of Japan, and we had only added it to our itinerary when we realised that our train to Yamaguchi went past it. We were already looking for a stop between Narita and Yamaguchi. The torii really does look fabulous 200m out in the water, 16m tall, with pillars of 10m circumference, and impressively strong.

Next site was the Itsukushima Shrine itself. It was built in the 12th century, so one of the earlier shrines in Japan. It is a series of linked pavilions on small stilts above the high tide. It is clearly still in active use with many monks about. We saw one monk chanting a scripture on behalf of someone else - quite special. There are big stages for bugaku court dances. The complex had the feel of being built not for show, but for real purpose.

Itsukushima Shrine


Next up was the Daisho-in Temple. The big tourist draw cards on the island are first the gate, and second the shrine, but we loved Daisho-in most. We were several hours ahead of the crowds, so we had the temple pretty much to ourselves. There were so many interesting things to see - hundreds of little woolly-hatted statues, a great pair of carved gate guardians, a cave of lights and statues, and many fascinating temples. The whole complex was set in beautiful gardens.

Daisho-in Temple grounds



Henjo Cave

Starting this visit to Japan, we felt we might have seen enough temples and shrines, but both the sites today were fascinating and as good as anywhere else we've seen.

We were getting peckish by now so had a delicious breakfast of egg, greens and pork that we'd picked up at a 7-Eleven convenience store for $4.50. We hadn't really got into convenience-store food last trip, but we'd watched a video reviewing the author's 20 favourite 7-Eleven items, and realised that they really do have excellent choices at what is by NZ standards absurdly reasonable prices. The 3 dishes we've tried so far have been very good.

Breakfast

From Miyajima Island, it was back across in the ferry, a pickup of our bags from the lockers at the train station, then a trip on a local train to Hiroshima Station where we picked up a bento box each before boarding the shinkansen to Yamaguchi, and finally a one-stop trip from there to Yuda Onsen on another shinkansen.

The bento box was everything we'd been looking forward to - 9 compartments showcasing the best food of Hiroshima, including beef, fish, octopus, an oyster, conger eel, clams, chicken and more. Just a delight and, of course, beautifully presented. All that for under $NZ15.

We arrived a little early at our ryokan, Sansuien, so dropped our bags and set off by bus to a local temple, Rurikoji. The temple itself was nothing special, but its associated 5-level pagoda is considered one of Japan's top 3 pagodas along with 2 others we've seen in Kyoto and Nara. It really was very impressive and worth the trip to the temple complex to see just for it.

Arriving at Sansuien

Rurikoji Pagoda

Near the pagoda was the cemetery of the Mori clan. This clan has been very important throughout the last few thousand years as one of the very powerful daimyo clans. It was interesting to see something new like this. Each past daimyo had his own burial mound and it felt a special place.

Mori burial mounds on the right

Back by bus to the ryokan where we settled into our room before heading to one of the onsens attached to the ryokan.

Our yukata (robe), haori (overcoat), belts, toe socks and onsen bag. The pink belt indicates the female outfit

Wearing Japanese evening wear - yukata and haori

For bathing this time we chose the connected (public) onsen a little above the ryokan, set in the hills. Rather good, with multiple pools to choose from and natural thermal spring water. We'll use the in-house onsen tomorrow. The baths are virtually always separated between the sexes.

The onsen was fun. Of course we had to take our glasses off before we went there. Not that it made any difference, because the line-up of bottles with wash products in each little cubicle was obviously always going to be in Japanese. There was no way of knowing which was the body wash, shampoo, conditioner, perhaps moisturiser. I did manage to identify the exfoliant wash before I put it on my hair. In the end I put everything on and came out feeling exceedingly squeaky clean and very fresh! 

Then another highlight to finish the day - a kaiseki meal served in our room with 13 delightful dishes and tea. I'll let the photos speak for themselves. We'd been looking forward to this meal for months, knowing it would be superb, and indeed it was.

Conger eel, salad, sashimi (bream and squid), little delights, and a soup not shown

Vegetables, pork belly, fish and ginger root

Dessert, rice, miso soup, tempura, pickles, and green tea to finish

A fantastic day. We did wonder if the third trip to Japan might be too much, but absolutely not. We've seen some fascinating sights today and eaten some delightful food. All three meals today have been top notch. 

To bed after arranging a pickup for our main bags tomorrow so they arrive in Hagi the same day we do, while we are walking down from the hills with just daypacks.