After a bus, tram and boat ride, we finally arrived at around noon yesterday in the sacred lands of Miyajima (also known as Itsukushima). This small island town, south of Hiroshima, is home to the O-Torii gate, which is deemed a world heritage site and one of the top 3 things to see in Japan. The gate itself rests on the sands.

We started our island tour by exploring the small, but architecturally beautiful city. It takes roughly 30 minutes to walk from one end to the other. We started with (of course) some traditional Japanese food, before moving onto some artisan ice cream (as seen on Youtube).

Such as a few other places in Japan, deer here are sacred… and because of this, they are mixed in with the general population of people. We witnessed a local shop owner having to nicely kick the deer out of this store. I even befriended one (as seen below).

After a couple lemon beers, we headed to our traditional Japanese Inn (Ryokan). The Ryokan was an experience all in its own, and included a traditional Japanese dinner and breakfast… and even a yukata (cloth kimono) to wear around the hotel.

During the evening we wandered around the empty town (things close between 5-6pm on this island), and got to see the town and Torii Gate lit-up.

If you’re going to Japan one day, go here.

Next stop: Kobe