Thursday - Omishima

On Thursday I left Hiroshima heading back to Tokyo. But, I wanted to stop at a small city called Mihara about 30 minutes outside of Hiroshima. From Mihara I would catch a ferry to the tiny island of Omishima. There is a shrine on Omishima called Oyamazumi-jinja. Next to the shrine is a museum housing approximately 80% of Japan's remaining Samurai artifacts. Being in Hiroshima and so close to Omishima, I could hardly pass up an opportunity to visit the museum.

Omishima was quite different from Miyajima. Miyajima was peaceful but had a busy feeling to it because it was a tourist attraction. Omishima was quiet and remote. Very, very few tourists and hardly any townsfolk around either. The shrine was very peaceful and quiet. Once I located the museum I was pretty much the only person there other than the priests (or monks) from the shrine that maintain the museum. Photography was not allowed inside the museum, but I purchased a book for 2000 Yen that has very detailed photographs of the museum's artifacts.


















After taking my time through the museum I headed back to the harbour to catch the ferry back to Mihara and then the shinkansen back to Tokyo.