We awoke this morning and headed down to Tokyo station to pick up our Shinkansen train for the 4-hour ride to Hiroshima. The ride was very smooth and before we knew it we were pulling into Hiroshima Station. After talking to the information desk, we headed over to our hotel to check-in and drop off some luggage before we headed out to Miyajima Island for the day.

We bought our 2-day tourist passes and got on the streetcar for the 60-minute ride to the Miyajima ferry dock. At the docks, there were two ferry companies that take people over two the island and we weren't sure which one to take (since it was included with our tourist pass). We guessed wrong, but the lady taking the tickets on the island was nice and let us go through without paying any extra.

Our first stop on the island was some lunch. We decided to try the Okonomiyaki for lunch, which is sort of a type of egg omelet with noodles. We were able to watch the chef make ours while we waited for a table, which was kind of neat. Once we got seated, our food came out fairly quickly and it was very tasty. We shared a single one and it was just the right amount of food for us.

After polishing off our Okonomiyaki, we walked over to see the floating Torii gate that Miyajima island is famous for. The only problem is that it wasn't floating! The tide was out and it was just sitting in the mud and seaweed. It was still beautiful, but we decided to come back later and see if the tide would be back in.

Part of our tourist pass was the Miyajima Ropeway, so we headed up towards it. It consists of two types of cable cars, the circulating type which was smaller and took about 20 minutes to get you most of the way up the mountain (Mt. Misen), and the funicular type which was a much bigger gondola which took you up the rest of the way.

Once we got to the top of the ropeway, we climbed a small hill to the lookout and were awed by the amazing view of the Seto Inland Sea and all the islands in it. It was spectacular. Once we had had our fill of the view, we had to decide what we wanted to do next. We could either head back down the ropeway or attempt to climb the rest of the way up to the top of Mt. Misen, about a 30-minute hike. We decided to attempt the summit and headed out that way. The first little bit was actually downhill, but that was just a tease before the 25 minutes of serious uphill climbing. Both Christine and I were soaked with sweat well before we were halfway up. We finally made it to the top and the view was even better than we had hoped for. You had a complete 360-degree panorama view of the sea, the islands, and Hiroshima City. It really was breathtaking. It was also a good spot to sit for a minute and get our breath back after the climb.

After resting for a while and enjoying the view, we headed back down to the ropeway and took the two cars back to the bottom. While we were walking back down to the city area, it started to thunder quite loudly, and we were concerned that it might start to rain, but it never did.

The Torii gate was now partially in water as the tide was starting to come in, so we went down on to the exposed seafloor and took some pictures of it. Kent headed back up to sit down for a rest, but Christine spotted a heron of some sort and headed out to take some shots of it. Before she knew it the way she had come was underwater and she had to take an alternate route back, which included leaping over a stretch of water. She almost made it, but one shoe got a little wet and sandy.

There was a wild storm taking place on the other side of the sea, so every now and then we would get a cool flash of lightening to watch. It was also making for some interesting colours behind the Torii gate, so we took some more shots of that before heading back to the ferry to the mainland.

A short ferry ride and a longish streetcar ride got us back to Hiroshima station, where it was a quick walk back to our hotel. We stopped off on the way and had dinner at a restaurant that serves Don (pork or beef shredded on rice with all sorts of different topping options) and then made it to our room for bed as we were both exhausted.