I recently took a group of tourists on a sail through the Seto Inland Sea for three days. Our destination was Miyajima, home of the Great Torii Gate and Itsukushima Shrine (built in A.D. 593), a World Heritage site since 1996.
After a beautiful three days of sailing and stopping at islands along the way, we arrived at Miyajima, where our guests disembarked and we bid them farewell. I have done this sailing route many times, but until this last trip, I had never climbed Mount Misen, the mountain on Miyajima.
Finding ourselves with a few hours free while waiting for the tides to turn in our favor, my husband and I decided to hike Mount Misen. Another thing that prompted our mission was a new map titled "Miyajima Mount Misen Guide Map" in excellent English "ranslation" available at the Tourist Information Center. It outlined the different routes to the top of the mountain.