Tour Overview
Experience a lesser-visited Miyajima to have a more meaningful visit with a lighter footprint as you escape the crowds and engage with friendly local merchants. Visitors on this tour will see the top sights, but also learn more about the sacred island’s history, unique local culture, as well as learn about the sustainable strategies and challenges one of Japan’s most-visited tourist destinations. The tour is designed to highlight sustainability in terms of strategies which better balance the needs of people and planet with profits- the definition used by the United Nations since the 1970’s.
Miyajima has been a popular destination in Japan for more than a thousand years as a sacred island. This island of the gods is one of the top-sights in Japan now for both international and Japanese tourists due to its unique history, beauty, local traditions and culture. Most visitors join the crowds and may enjoy seeing the top sights but miss the deeper connections with Miyajima’s heritage and people. This Sustainable Miyajima Tour is a uniquely planned route that will guide you through the lesser-known backstreets to experience a high-value island experience.
The specially trained guides on this tour help travelers engage with friendly local merchants to hear how they create more sustainable products that preserve heritage, traditions and culture. Each guide is skilled at personalizing the tour to tap into your personal interests and experiences as they tell lesser-known stories of the island’s nature, people, and economy of the past, present and future.
Walking the less traveled backstreets and mountain paths as an alternative route around the island with a local guide will give you a chance to see features and issues of the God’s Island that most visitors never see or hear about.
Starting from your Hiroshima city hotel, or Hiroshima station at 8am, travel with your guide to Miyajima island to pass through the mountain and river views of this “wide-island” to hear a little about the city’s origins in the 16 Century and its innovative redesign after it was destroyed in 1945. Use this time on the train to discuss your travels and interests with your guide so they can personalize your experience once on the island.
If possible, we suggest visitors join the guide in bringing their own refillable water bottles, shopping bags and chopsticks so you can experience this heavily visited destination (visited by over 5 million people each year) with a more thoughtful and lighter traveler footprint to support locals.
Guide Information
Coco: Born and raised in Hiroshima, Coco has personal connections to A-bomb survivors and their stories of loss and survival. She is a warm, friendly and engaging guide, popular with visitors and she speaks English well. Coco has many years of experience as both a Japanese certified translation guide and doing international visitor guided tours. Coco is a local fruit & vegetable expert.
Jackie: Originally from Scotland, Jackie has lived in Japan for more than 30 years, 25 of them living in Hiroshima with her Japanese husband and bilingual daughter. With a background in linguistics, Jackie is passionate about language and communication, and speaks fluent Japanese. She is also an avid reader and movie fan. Jackie is warm, friendly and popular with visitors, with wonderful stories about her life and experience in Japan. She is excited to share the hidden gems of Miyajima on her tours.
Alex: Originally from the Netherlands, Alex has lived most of his life in Japan and married into a Japanese family as well as raising multilingual children in Hiroshima. He is a warm, friendly and engaging guide popular with visitors. Alex has done many tours with international guests and specializes in showing European and Dutch visitors around the sights on foot or by bicycle. Alex is an exceptional hiker and has a great love of nature and the outdoors, he has also learned Japanese ikebana and knows about tea.
Keiko: Born and raised in Hiroshima, Keiko is married into an American family and is raising bilingual kids in the city. Keiko has worked on translation and interpreting projects for many years with local media companies and is also a certified Japanese guide and translator. She is a warm, friendly and engaging guide popular with visitors. Keiko is a talented cook who loves Japanese foods, and is also a gifted karaoke singer. Keiko has great advice for things to do and see in the Hiroshima area.
Joy: Originally from Hawaii and California, Joy has lived most of her life in Hiroshima and renovated a traditional Japanese house and raised bilingual kids in the city. Joy taught at a university for over 20 years teaching business and tourism and also does writing, consulting and a talk show with focused on more sustainable travel. She is a warm, friendly and engaging guide popular with visitors. Joy was on the team to develop this tour and train the guides to deliver more meaningful, high-quality tours visitors will love.
Important notices or precautions
+ The usual route includes a lesser-known forest path, but an easier route can be used depending on the needs of the group if guests have accessibility issues.
+ Guests will be invited to join a small beach clean volunteer project along the tour to understand a local/global environmental issue.
+ The standard walking tour might be difficult for guests who use wheelchairs or who have difficulty walking stairs, but please inform us at the time of booking to make adjustments.
<Contact>
JTB Hiroshima Branch
Person in Charge: Chris
Email: c_christong050@jtb.com
