Photo: JordyMeow (CC BY-SA 3.0)
A self-guided audio walk around the town of Miyajima on the sacred island of Itsukushima, where the island itself was worshipped as a god and the shrine was built over the sea. From the ferry pier it follows the old Machiya-dori street to the hill of Senjokaku, the great sutra hall Toyotomi Hideyoshi commissioned in 1587, and the Five-Storey Pagoda of 1407. Through Itsukushima Shrine, rebuilt under Taira patronage in 1168, it passes Marodo Shrine, the Main Hall reconstructed by Mori Motonari in 1571, the stages for court dance and the view to the Great Torii, the camphor-pillared gate completed in 1875, then the Noh stage of 1680, the steep Sorihashi Bridge and the Treasure Hall with its copy of the Heike Nokyo scrolls. Beyond the shrine come the Tahoto Pagoda, Daigan-ji, the small shrine to Taira no Kiyomori, the history museum in the Egami merchant house, and Daisho-in at the foot of Mount Misen, with its 500 rakan statues. The island is reached by ferry from Miyajimaguchi, and the walk returns to the pier the same way.
16 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 42 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 4 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Miyajima Pier, Machiya-dori, Senjokaku, Five-Storey Pagoda.
Marodo Shrine, Itsukushima Shrine Main Hall, Hirabutai and Takabutai, Great Torii, Noh Stage, Sorihashi Bridge, Itsukushima Shrine Treasure Hall.
Tahoto Pagoda, Daigan-ji, Kiyomori Shrine, Miyajima History and Folklore Museum, Daisho-in.
Hideyoshi's great sutra hall of 1587, never finished and later made a Shinto shrine, hung with votive tablets and giant rice scoops.
The hall of the three goddesses, rebuilt by Mori Motonari in 1571 after his victory in the Battle of Itsukushima in 1555.
The six-legged gate in the sea, completed in 1875, its main pillars natural camphor trees and its lintel weighted with stones.
A stage built over the sea in 1680 for sacred Noh, nearly destroyed by a typhoon in 1991 and put back together piece by piece.
The temple that maintained the shrine, where pilgrims once bathed before entering and Buddhist images were moved in the Meiji era.
The temple at the foot of Mount Misen, rebuilt after an 1887 fire, with sutra wheels on its stairs and 500 rakan statues.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 16 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 16 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Miyajima — Itsukushima Shrine and the Island Town, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
16 narration points, including Miyajima Pier, Machiya-dori, Senjokaku, Five-Storey Pagoda and Marodo Shrine. That is about 22 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 16 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.