Call me basic but I’ve always wanted to go to Rabbit island/Ōkunoshima! I’ll be in Hiroshima this coming Saturday and wondering if anyone has experience on how to get there?
I‘ve been planning on doing Hiroshima (Sat), Miyajima (Sun), Ōkunoshima (Mon) and then travelling to Osaka once done at the island. I have a JR pass but saw something online about some of the trains not being available/more stops to endure?
Would it be best to swap the Miyajima and Ōkunoshima days for a more direct route to Osaka?
For reference, travelling to Hiroshima Saturday morning from Tokyo so any recommendations on how to structure these days would be great 🙏🏻
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That order makes sense to me, if you’re staying over in miyajima I’d maybe flip that and your hiroshima day.
People may have been referring to the slower bullet trains on the JR pass? I’m pretty sure there’s only one train out to okunoshima and I don’t remember if it’s jr
Hi!
I went there ten years ago.
From what I remember, you have to go to the local rail station hub Mihara then get on a small train line that follows the coast westward for 3 stations until Tadanoumi.
There you would have to wait for the ferry to the island, which I think is hourly. Be careful since it stops at 6pm or something.
I had planned to spend the night at the island’s hotel with a friend and it proved to be the correct choice for us – we were lucky to get the last ferry of the day to get to the island and we were not pressed for time after that.
edit: of course you could also come from Hiroshima’s side, and I heard there are buses in addition to the trains: you might want to look into that!
Went there on the 2nd day while biking the Shimanami Kaido – definitely one of the top highlights! You should be able to ferry onto the Bunny Island – it was super chill and highly recommend 😁
Hi,
I went there in 2019. Was based in Fukuyama, took the Shinkansen to Mihara, then Kure line to Tadanoumi and boarded the ferry there.
The island is lots of fun, not just because of the bunnies. Have you ever played the computer game “Far Cry”? Vegetation and ruins there look exactly like the world of Far Cry. 🙂
Since Mihara is at the Sanyo Shinkansen Main Line, you should be able to go from Hiroshima to Tadanoumi via Kure line (which starts/ends in Hiroshima) in the morning, visit bunny island, then take the Kure line to Mihara and hop on the Shinkansen to Osaka there in the evening.
Luggage might be a challenge, but I believe there are luggage transfer services for tourists.
Another option is Hiroshima -> Mihara (store luggage there?) -> Tadanoumi in the morning and Tadanoumi -> Mihara (collect luggage) -> Osaka in the evening
Just went last week. As others have said, you want to go to Mihara then Tadanoumi. The only thing I’ll add is that the RETURN ferry can depart from two different piers at different times. We missed our return ferry because we defaulted to the same pier we arrived at.
Later in the day it seems they run a smaller return ferry from a different pier so pay attention to that. But it’s not a huge deal they’re within 15 minutes walking distance of each other.
I went there a few months ago.
We hired a car to get there and we are so glad we did.
We saw so much cool countryside through the mountains on the way there.
Okunoshima was totally worth it 😀
If you do hire a car, you can just drive straight to the ferry terminal, it’s about 1.5hr. 😁
Not basic, rabbit island was really interesting and certainly worth the visit. Cat island, not as much.
Oh! What a wonderful thing to do! I am off to Japan in 2 days, but I don’t have time to do this. Instead I’ll be spending time with my host families from (gasp) 40 years ago. Maybe next time I’ll visit the bunnies! Oh, and you’re not *basic* for wanting to do this. You do what makes you happy!
Back in 2019 I took the train to Onomichi and then had to go back to Hiroshima to get to the Shinkansen to Tokyo.
Just left there five minutes ago. I found it easiest to take the ferry from mihara (not tadanoumi). Longer but lined up with the shinkansen better. This ferry is not on the official okunishima page, but check Google maps. You have to bring your own food for the rabbits though. No longer sold on the island. Only tadanoumi port.