1 / 3Grilled oysters on MiyajimaPhoto: puffyjet / CC BY 2.0
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Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
Fat Hiroshima oysters over charcoal, in the shell, two for pocket change. Yakigaki no Hayashi is the famous grill — the queue is the correct one. Open 10:30–17:00 (last order 16:30). Closed Wednesdays, and also 5, 10, 17 and 26 November 2026.
- On a 4–6h ashore call our verdict is "Only this" — miyajima or the peace park — one, not both, and the ferry decides your clock.
- Closed Wednesdays, and also 5, 10, 17 and 26 November 2026. Check the day before you plan around it.
- 6:30–17:30 from 15 Oct to 30 Nov, 6:30–17:00 in December, 6:30–17:30 from 4 Jan to the end of February (18:00 from 1 March). — the gate is visible at any hour.
- 6 hr door to door needs an 8-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
- No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
Why Grilled oysters on Miyajima is famous
Hiroshima produces around 60 percent of Japan's oysters, farmed on rafts in the Inland Sea. On Miyajima they are grilled in the shell at the roadside and eaten with the shell as the plate. The season is winter, but the grills run most of the year.
The island itself was the deity, so commoners could not set foot on it — and the shrine was therefore built on piles over the tidal flat, with its great torii standing in the sea. Worshippers arrived by boat and passed through the gate on the water without ever touching sacred ground.
A shrine has stood here since at least 593; the form you see was built by Taira no Kiyomori in 1168 as a Heian aristocratic mansion over the sea. The current torii is the eighth since Kiyomori's time, raised in 1875, about 16 metres tall, held in place by nothing but its own weight.
Three places, three different answers
The one the queue agrees on, the one people who live here use instead, and the one nearest your ship. Opening days change; check before you build a day around one.
On Miyajima since 1948, and the first restaurant to serve grilled oysters to customers. The shell is the plate. Open 10:30–17:00 (last order 16:30); closed Wednesdays, and also 5, 10, 17 and 26 November 2026.
Open in Google MapsWhere locals goKakiya牡蠣屋On the same street, and the one that treats the oyster as the whole menu.
Open in Google MapsClosest to the berthOmotesando shotengai宮島表参道商店街The covered street from the pier to the shrine, with grills on both sides.
Open in Google MapsThings worth knowing
- Check the tide table before choosing your ferry: high water floats the shrine, low water lets you walk out and touch the torii.
- The deer will take your map, your ticket and your ice cream. Keep paper in a bag.
- Walk past the shopping street first and see the shrine — the shops are there on the way back.
- The ropeway up Mt. Misen stops short of the summit; the last stretch is a real twenty-minute climb.
Grilled oysters on Miyajima and your ship
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
Questions people send us
How long does Miyajima take from the Hiroshima cruise port?
About 80–95 minutes each way by tram, JR and the ten-minute ferry, or about 30 minutes by the direct boat from Hiroshima Port (book by 17:00 the day before) — plus three hours minimum on the island. It works on an eight-hour stop ashore, is a straight either-or against the Peace Park on six, and does not fit a short call at all.
Is Miyajima better at high tide or low tide?
Different, not better. High tide gives the floating shrine of the photographs; low tide lets you walk several hundred metres out and stand beneath the torii itself. Check the tide table for your date and pick your ferry accordingly.
Routes that already include it
Each one is a finished day timed from the official timetables, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
See · ~5h with tramPeace Memorial Museum & Dome
The reason your ship stops here.
See the detail
See · ~6h by tram and JR, ~4.5h by the direct boatMiyajima & Itsukushima shrine
The vermilion gate in the sea, deer on the sand, oyster smoke in the lanes.
See the detail
Eat · ~3hOkonomiyaki at Mitchan
Hiroshima-style means layers, not batter — cabbage, soba, egg, and the founder’s sauce.
See the detail