MIYAJIMA: Omotesando Street ( Momijido Honten, Miyajima Itsuki Coffee, Octopus cracker)

In the hypothetical setting if you do not eat oysters because you're allergic ( Of course the only reason for you not eating oysters should be because you have an anaphylactic reason because I absolutely can't think of why you wouldn't eat oysters then hmmmmmm. Read about oyster restaurants in miyajima here: Yakigaki and Kakiya, and Kaiseki meal ) , what else can you do in Miyajima apart from ..

Picture taking of great Torii 

Picture taking of Great Torii and yourself 

Picture taking of Great Torii and yourself with your partner

Picture taking of Great Torri, yourself and a random innocent deer

And if you think that's enough picture taking of Great Torri..

NO YOU ARE WRONG.

Of course you need a picture of declaration of love too, duh

Well.. To be honest, I really don't know why you're in Miyajima if you can't/don't eat oysters :/ However, I guess there's still some things on Omotesando street, which is the main shopping street, that you can munch on to prevent yourself from dying of hunger haha.

Another of what Miyajima is famous for is the momiji manjyu. They are small cakes filled with mashed red bean paste and they are shaped after maple tree leaves.  

Apparently Momijido is the most popular shop selling the tastiest momiji manjyu.

1) Momijido Honten
512-2, Miyajimacho, Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture 739-0588, Japan

We decided to try the age- momiji 180yen for 1. They are essentially momiji manju fried on a stick. It was so good and I highly recommend this over the non fried ones!

2) Miyajima Itsuki Coffee

420 Miyajimacho, Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture 739-0588, Japan

9am -7pm daily

A great place to stop for a breather after exploring part of the island 

They sell the popular Hattendo cream puff from Osaka too!

Their Miyajima lemonade is TO DIE FOR !

3) Octopus cracker

So I spotted a  young girl with an octopus cracker bigger than her face. And immediately I turned to Nick and went " I WANT ! " 

To be honest, I probably bought it because I wanted a picture for instagram ooops

It is made by oiling the grill, sprinkling some starch powder and 4 octopus then press the grill down tight and everything flattens out into a this huge cracker.

It was actually a torture trying to finish this whole cracker hahaha. But at least I got heaps of attention from passerbys walking down Omotesando street + a nice picture for instagram :p

MIYAJIMA: Kakiya 牡蠣屋

Another oyster restaurant that you shouldn't miss when you're in Miyajima is Kakiya. It's also probably the cleanest, nicest looking restaurant along Omotesando shopping street.

I'm like this kid who does not ever learn her lesson, so the day before we had oysters  at Yakigaki ( read here) I ate so much oysters I seriously felt so nauseas and I almost puked. But how can you ever say no to plump and fresh oysters, especially if they are in season?!

Nick was initially apprehensive about visiting another oyster restaurant because he had enough of me complaining of wanting to vomit the day before, but the moment he walked past this restaurant he was like, okay, we have to go in.Partially because the restaurant looks really posh and nice ( seeeeeeeeee, the importance of aesthetics. So please, don't ever look down on me if I ever talk about doing aesthetic medicine okay hahaha. ) 

We ordered the Kakiya Special set menu 2690yen, it consists of oysters in various preparations. 

We probably should have just ordered 1 set to share, but Nick and I are very greedy and we hate having to half good food with each other, so we just ordered x2 lol

1) Fresh

2) top: Crumbed 

bottom: grilled

3) Oyster gratin

I really enjoyed this way of cooking the oyster!

And how often do you find twin oysters in one shell?!?!

My only regret was not trying their oyster in olive oil. And the reason why we didnt try was.... I seriously felt really sick again from eating so many oysters hahaha. 

I love how this shop also sells oyster sauce, oyster oil etc and I really wished I had gone against Nick and bought some home. Nick didn't allow me to do so because we still had another half more month of travel around Japan and he didn't want to carry additional unnecessary weight ): 

I highly recommend people to visit Miyajima ( especially during winter when it's oyster season; but don't worry, they do have oysters whole year round in the restaurants). 

Leaving you with 3 pretty pictures of the Great Torii 

Kakiya 牡蠣屋 ( click for website)

539 Miyajima Cho 

MIYAJIMA: Yakigaki no Hayashi 焼がきのはやし

Continue our trip from where we left off before I decided to sneak in a couple of Tokyo recommends for the sake of our friends, oops sorry! 

Making our way from Hiroshima to Miyajima.

But first, COFFEE.

Then we find our mode of transport to Miyajima pier

It was snowing !

 Checking the tidal information, not that it's gonna change anything haha

Getting ready to board the ship

The great Torii

Great Torii versus my face.

which is Greater I wonder hmmm :p

Just as how Nara is famous for deers, Miyajima is famous for OYSTERS.
And I love oysters!
So imagine how excited I was on the way to Miyajima, I was telling Nick how I'm just gonna put our bags down in our Ryokan Kinsuikan and rush out and devour all the oysters.

There's 2 oysters specialty restaurant I highly recommend, the first one is located very conveniently on the main shopping street -Omotesando; actually both of them are located very conveniently hahaha

We ordered a plate of anago to start off first because it's Nick's favourite and also because I was feeling extremely apologetic, I was gonna take him to a anago specialty restaurant; I thought it was on miyajima island itself but it turns out that it was on hiroshima island ): So .. yeah

It was a tasty anago.

The oysters they serve at this restaurant are " Jigozen Oysters", which have received numerous awards. They only select the " san-nen mono" ( 3 year oysters) which contains large about of meat and have strong umami flavours

We ordered the set meal Kaki Senkai Teishouku 2980yen per person which consist of raw oysters, grilled oysters, either crumbed or tempura oysters and oysyer rice.

The oysters were so huge, so succulent and SO FRESH.

Have you enjoyed something so much that you just keep wanting to stuff yourself with it even though you feel extremely "gao wei " already. I literally ate so much until I felt really unwell. But if you were to give me a second chance, I will definitely repeat this same "mistake" and perhaps make a bigger "mistake" by ordering more ! :p

Definitely a restaurant to eat at in Miyajima 

Yakigaki no Hayashi 焼がきのはやし

505−１ Miyajimacho, Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture 739-0588, Japan

open 10.30 - 5pm everyday