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How much time do you need for what you would like to do?
The time you need on the island depends on what you want to do. Here are the popular destinations and how long you need for each of these places.
How long does it take from Hiroshima station to Miyajima?
Let’s start from Hiroshima station. The best way to get to Miyajima island is to catch a train and then a ferry. It takes about 45 mins, and you will be surrounded by the relaxed feeling of the island and nature.
There are 4 ferries an hour between 8
If you just want to look around the shrine.
You might not have much time to spend on Miyajima, and may just want to visit the famous floating shrine, Itsukushima-jinja.
What you can do in 2 hours is, to walk to the shrine from the ferry, look around the shrine and gate, check the shopping street and come back to the ferry.
Add an hour for playing with deer on the way to the shrine, having lunch or do some shopping.
Time: 6.30 am to 5 pm (5.30 pm or 6 pm some time of year.)
Fee: 300 yen per adult, 100 yen per children
Check out Daisho-in Temple.
This unique historic temple has fascinating things to see, such as the 500 Rakan statues, Henjokutsu-cave and Chokugando.
It takes about 45 mins to visit the temple from Itsukushima Shrine, and look around.
Time:
Fee: free entry
Visit Toyokuni Shrine and five-storied pagoda.
This shine is located on the way to the ferry. It is a great place to visit if you have spear 30 mins or so. You can see inside of Toyokuni Shrine, but can not go into the pagoda.
Time: 8.30 am to 4 pm
Fee:100 yen per adult, 50 yen per children
Take ropeway to enjoy the view from Mount Misen.
You know Itsukushima shrine is world heritage, but might not know that the virgin forest of Mt Misen is a part of the reason for the shrine to be world heritage. The view from the lookout at the top is counted as some of the best scenery in Japan.
You can see the nature side of Miyajima going up to the mountain. It takes about 2 hours and a half round trip including sightseeing.
Time: First ropeway is at 9 am (8 am in Nov), and the last one coming back is from 5 pm to 6 pm. (depending on the season.)
Fee: 1800 yen return or 1000 yen one way per adult,
900 yen return or 500 yen one way for children
Climb Mount Misen.
Mt Misen is 535 m tall mountain, and there are 3 walking tracks. They take 1 hour 30 mins to 2 hours 30 mins each way, 3 to 5 hours return.
What is the opening times?
The first ferry is at 6.25 am, and the last ferry leaves Miyajima island at 10.14 pm.
If you would like to go into Itsukushima shrine, they open at 6.30 am. The closing time changes seasonally and is between 5.30 pm to 6.30 pm.
Most of the shops open around 9 or 10 am, and start closing around 4 pm.
How long we spend there and what we did.
I am a person who doesn’t want to get up early to make the most out of the day, even when we are on holiday. And we need a relaxed time at breakfast to start the day, and travelling from Hiroshima, the time when we got to the island was close to noon.
Although we didn’t have plenty of time, we did look around the island very well. We went into the Itsukushima shrine, took too many pictures, had anago eel lunch, tasted their local oysters at the shopping street, did a bit of mountain sidewalk (We didn’t go all the way to the top.), and had fun looking at deer everywhere.
We spend about 5 hours to do all that. The island is not huge, the main sightseeing destination is in one part of the island, 5 hours is plenty unless you are climbing the mountain.
