The links stop at each taxi, rail, ferry and ropeway change. Google does not replace the protected Nozomi/ferry departures or the guide's weather-gated mountain plan.
JAPAN 2026
RAILS
OYSTERS
MISEN
HIGH WATER
TOKYO TO MIYAJIMA — THE ISLAND BY MIDDAY
THE GREAT TORII, HIGH WATER
2026
DAY III · 4 SEPTEMBER · 東京 → 宮島
SIX O'CLOCK TO A HOLY MOUNTAIN
Two cases leave for Kyoto before we do, and the day starts in the dark at an Asakusa front desk. A 06:00 Nozomi puts Hiroshima behind breakfast and the island under our feet by half past eleven. Then it slows down on purpose: raw and grilled oysters where shell-grilling was invented, a one-way ropeway, three kilometres of pilgrimage steps taken downhill, and a shrine standing in water while the tide is still high. Dinner is already paid for, at seven.
TWO MEASURED CASES, WAYBILLS ALREADY FILLED, PAID HERE
05:05
ASAKUSA → TOKYO STATION
PRE-BOOKED TAXI, OVERNIGHT BAGS ONLY
06:00
TOKYO → HIROSHIMA
NOZOMI 1, ARRIVES 09:49 — SMARTEX, NOT YET BOUGHT
10:00
HIROSHIMA → MIYAJIMAGUCHI
SANYO LOCAL, ABOUT 27 MINUTES · 10:15 IS THE BACKUP
11:10
MIYAJIMAGUCHI → MIYAJIMA
JR FERRY, TEN MINUTES — HOTEL BAG DROP FIRST, SEVEN AWAY
The 11:10 is the baseline, not the 10:55: a missed sailing costs about fifteen minutes, and boats leave at ten past, twenty-five past, twenty to and five to the hour. Between 09:10 and 16:10 they run the Great Torii loop, so the protected crossing is also the scenic one. The rail pass does not exist until tomorrow, so this ferry and this local are paid in cash.
Eight minutes from the pier, halfway along Omotesandō: the shop that first served oysters cooked inside their own shells, and still starts the fire only once you order. It buys the three-year Jigozen oysters and, because the water around Okurokami holds a steady temperature and a high salinity, serves them raw all year — ten years of its own testing behind that. Four raw at ¥1,900, two grilled at ¥1,500, one oyster rice at ¥1,600: ¥5,000 before drinks, two raw and one grilled each, and still room for eleven courses at seven.
Two blocks of nothing planned, and they are on the schedule so that nothing eats them. Forty minutes after lunch along Machiya-dōri — the island's Edo-period main street, still houses and small shops — and up through the pagoda foothill lanes to Momijidani. Then up to forty-five minutes after the shrine, through the quiet West Town edge and back along the water with a cold drink. Sixty to eighty-five minutes in total; the second block is the first thing a late descent takes.
Momijidani by a quarter past one at the latest — a free shuttle runs there from the pier about every twenty minutes. Then two ropeways in series: an eight-seat gondola for roughly ten minutes to Kayatani, and a thirty-five-seat car for four more to Shishiiwa. Buy one way only, ¥1,100 each. From Shishiiwa it is about half an hour on foot past Reikadō, where a fire has been kept for more than 1,200 years and was used to light the Flame of Peace in Hiroshima, to the 535-metre summit.
Leave the summit at ten past two; twenty past is the hard limit, and nothing reopens it. The Daishō-in route is the old pilgrimage approach — about three kilometres of primeval forest and more than two thousand stone steps, past the small stone Buddhas that mark the way, budgeted at ninety minutes to two hours. The temple's own advice: proper shoes, long trousers, water and something sweet, and after three o'clock come down this side, because it holds the light longest.
High water comes at 14:42 and reads 305 centimetres — the deepest of the day, and the reason this is the last stop rather than the first. Arriving between 16:05 and 16:15 is eighty-three to ninety-three minutes past the peak, so the corridors should still stand over water rather than mud. That is a reading of the tide curve, not a separately published forecast. Open until six, ¥300 each. The site was chosen on an oracle, at the place where the tide ebbs and flows, and Taira no Kiyomori rebuilt the halls in 1168 in the manner of a nobleman's house.
One night on the mainland, seven minutes from JR Miyajimaguchi. The compact bag goes in before the island; the two large cases are already on their way to Kyoto. Dinner is hotel-confirmed and included for two — eleven courses finished over wood fire, at 19:00. Both travellers' dietary details are due back by 28 August.
¥5,260
TWO CASES ON TO KYOTO YAMATO SIZE 160, ¥2,630 EACH
¥6,200
OYSTERS AT HAYASHI, PARTY ¥5,000 BEFORE TWO SOFT DRINKS
¥39,120
NOZOMI 1, PARTY — NOT YET BOUGHT REGULAR SMARTEX, RESERVED SEATS
¥19,100
DAY TOTAL, TWO TRAVELLERS SMARTEX EXCLUDED · DINNER INCLUDED
IF THE DAY SLIPS — the order of protection is lunch, the shrine, the 17:40 ferry and the 19:00 dinner. Still unseated at Hayashi by 11:50 → Okino Suisan, which keeps raw and grilled but not the sitting. Momijidani after 13:15, the summit after 14:20, wet steps, plausible thunder or unsure legs → back to Shishiiwa and ¥1,100 each down, in cash. Ropeway suspended → lunch, lower Daishō-in, the shrine and the lanes. A serious ferry warning or typhoon → stay on the mainland and keep the dinner; do not substitute Hiroshima.
The links stop at each taxi, rail, ferry and ropeway change. Google does not replace the protected Nozomi/ferry departures or the guide's weather-gated mountain plan.
JAPAN 2026RAILSOYSTERSMISENHIGH WATERTOKYO TO MIYAJIMA — THE ISLAND BY MIDDAYTHE GREAT TORII, HIGH WATER2026
DAY III · 4 SEPTEMBER · 東京 → 宮島
SIX O'CLOCK TO A HOLY MOUNTAIN
Two cases leave for Kyoto before we do, and the day starts in the dark at an Asakusa front desk. A 06:00 Nozomi puts Hiroshima behind breakfast and the island under our feet by half past eleven. Then it slows down on purpose: raw and grilled oysters where shell-grilling was invented, a one-way ropeway, three kilometres of pilgrimage steps taken downhill, and a shrine standing in water while the tide is still high. Dinner is already paid for, at seven.
TWO MEASURED CASES, WAYBILLS ALREADY FILLED, PAID HERE
05:05
PRE-BOOKED TAXI, OVERNIGHT BAGS ONLY
06:00
NOZOMI 1, ARRIVES 09:49 — SMARTEX, NOT YET BOUGHT
10:00
SANYO LOCAL, ABOUT 27 MINUTES · 10:15 IS THE BACKUP
11:10
JR FERRY, TEN MINUTES — HOTEL BAG DROP FIRST, SEVEN AWAY
The 11:10 is the baseline, not the 10:55: a missed sailing costs about fifteen minutes, and boats leave at ten past, twenty-five past, twenty to and five to the hour. Between 09:10 and 16:10 they run the Great Torii loop, so the protected crossing is also the scenic one. The rail pass does not exist until tomorrow, so this ferry and this local are paid in cash.
BEFORE SIX東京駅 — THE SHINKANSEN PLATFORM¥39,120 PARTY, UNBOUGHT
WALK-IN, NOT BOOKED焼がき — COOKED IN THE SHELL¥1,500 FOR TWO
HALF PAST ELEVEN · 焼がきのはやし
THE SHOP THAT INVENTED THE GRILL
Eight minutes from the pier, halfway along Omotesandō: the shop that first served oysters cooked inside their own shells, and still starts the fire only once you order. It buys the three-year Jigozen oysters and, because the water around Okurokami holds a steady temperature and a high salinity, serves them raw all year — ten years of its own testing behind that. Four raw at ¥1,900, two grilled at ¥1,500, one oyster rice at ¥1,600: ¥5,000 before drinks, two raw and one grilled each, and still room for eleven courses at seven.
Two blocks of nothing planned, and they are on the schedule so that nothing eats them. Forty minutes after lunch along Machiya-dōri — the island's Edo-period main street, still houses and small shops — and up through the pagoda foothill lanes to Momijidani. Then up to forty-five minutes after the shrine, through the quiet West Town edge and back along the water with a cold drink. Sixty to eighty-five minutes in total; the second block is the first thing a late descent takes.
CARRY CASH FOR SHISHIIWA瀬戸内海 — FROM THE RIDGE535 METRES
ONE O'CLOCK · 弥山
ONE WAY UP, AND NO TICKET DOWN
Momijidani by a quarter past one at the latest — a free shuttle runs there from the pier about every twenty minutes. Then two ropeways in series: an eight-seat gondola for roughly ten minutes to Kayatani, and a thirty-five-seat car for four more to Shishiiwa. Buy one way only, ¥1,100 each. From Shishiiwa it is about half an hour on foot past Reikadō, where a fire has been kept for more than 1,200 years and was used to light the Flame of Peace in Hiroshima, to the 535-metre summit.
Leave the summit at ten past two; twenty past is the hard limit, and nothing reopens it. The Daishō-in route is the old pilgrimage approach — about three kilometres of primeval forest and more than two thousand stone steps, past the small stone Buddhas that mark the way, budgeted at ninety minutes to two hours. The temple's own advice: proper shoes, long trousers, water and something sweet, and after three o'clock come down this side, because it holds the light longest.
WEATHER-GATED五百羅漢 — THE RAKAN ON THE WAY DOWN3 KM · 90–120 MIN
AFTER THE DESCENT嚴島神社 — BUILT OVER THE TIDELAND16:05 TO 16:40
LATE AFTERNOON · 満潮
STILL HIGH, NINETY MINUTES ON
High water comes at 14:42 and reads 305 centimetres — the deepest of the day, and the reason this is the last stop rather than the first. Arriving between 16:05 and 16:15 is eighty-three to ninety-three minutes past the peak, so the corridors should still stand over water rather than mud. That is a reading of the tide curve, not a separately published forecast. Open until six, ¥300 each. The site was chosen on an oracle, at the place where the tide ebbs and flows, and Taira no Kiyomori rebuilt the halls in 1168 in the manner of a nobleman's house.
One night on the mainland, seven minutes from JR Miyajimaguchi. The compact bag goes in before the island; the two large cases are already on their way to Kyoto. Dinner is hotel-confirmed and included for two — eleven courses finished over wood fire, at 19:00. Both travellers' dietary details are due back by 28 August.
¥5,260
TWO CASES ON TO KYOTO YAMATO SIZE 160, ¥2,630 EACH
¥6,200
OYSTERS AT HAYASHI, PARTY ¥5,000 BEFORE TWO SOFT DRINKS
¥39,120
NOZOMI 1, PARTY — NOT YET BOUGHT REGULAR SMARTEX, RESERVED SEATS
¥19,100
DAY TOTAL, TWO TRAVELLERS SMARTEX EXCLUDED · DINNER INCLUDED
IF THE DAY SLIPS — the order of protection is lunch, the shrine, the 17:40 ferry and the 19:00 dinner. Still unseated at Hayashi by 11:50 → Okino Suisan, which keeps raw and grilled but not the sitting. Momijidani after 13:15, the summit after 14:20, wet steps, plausible thunder or unsure legs → back to Shishiiwa and ¥1,100 each down, in cash. Ropeway suspended → lunch, lower Daishō-in, the shrine and the lanes. A serious ferry warning or typhoon → stay on the mainland and keep the dinner; do not substitute Hiroshima.
