For this trip, I traveled around the San’in San’yō area, which is in the western part of Japan.
今回の旅は、日本の西の地域、山陽地方と山陰地方を訪れることにした。
I went to Itsukushima Shrine, which is an island in the western part of the Seto Inland Sea of Japan, located in the northwest of Hiroshima Bay. It is the second time that I went to the Shinto shrine, which has a large, beautiful “floating” Torii gate on the surface of the water.
まずは、瀬戸内海の西部、広島湾の小さな島にある厳島神社から。この神社に行くのは2度目だけど、水面に浮かぶ鳥居が本当に美しいんだ。
Personally, I enjoyed Hiroshima the most out of the different places that I visited in the Kinki area when I was studying abroad many years ago in Japan. To be honest, I like Hiroshima more than Kyoto, although I don’t really have a reason as to why.
日本に留学していた20代の頃、近畿地方の様々な場所を訪れたけど、個人的には広島が一番楽しかった。正直、僕は京都よりも広島の方が好きなんだ。
To get to the island, you take a ferry from the mainland which takes about 10 minutes. If the weather is good, the wonderful scenery is a pleasure to view. Although the weather was not ideal when I went, it was still very pretty.
島へは、宮島口からフェリーに乗って約10分で着く。天気が良ければ、素晴らしい景色を楽しむことができるよ。僕が行った時は天気があまり良くなかったけれど、それでもとても綺麗だった。
The shrine is built on the water, and was as beautiful then as it is now, thanks to the 3 and a half year renovation which was completed in December of last year. Of course it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are some deer wondering around that are not afraid of humans, although they are also in Nara as well.
神殿は水の上に建っているんだ。昨年12月に完了した3年半に及ぶ改修工事のおかげで、今も変わらず美しかった。もちろん世界遺産に登録されているよ。奈良と同じように、人懐っこくて可愛い鹿がいるんだ。
Hiroshima has really delicious seafood, but the most famous dish would probably be Hiroshimisha Yaki, which is a specific Hiroshima-style of Okonomiyaki. Hiroshima is famous for having great oysters, so I decided to have oysters with my Hiroshima Yaki.
広島には本当に美味しいシーフード料理がたくさんあるけど、最も有名な料理は広島焼きじゃないかな。広島は牡蠣が有名なので、牡蠣入りの広島焼きを食べることにした。とても美味しかったよ。
Tomorrow I plan on going to Izumo Taisha in Shimane Prefecture.
明日は、島根県の出雲神社に行く予定。