Itsukushima AKA Miyajima Island is within the Hiroshima Prefecture and can be reached utilizing your “JR Pass.” *For foreigners check what your pass actually includes so you don’t end up looking like a donkey, lol!
Just being honest if you Really want to experience that genuine old-time Japanese lifestyle and culture, this is the place that you want to be, not Kyoto!
What you need to do is spend the night as the last “tourists” leave on the last ferry back to the mainland post sunset. There are SO SO many cool ‘Onsen’ hotels and once in a life time spots here, it will blow your mind like Cinque Terre once did for me in Italy!
As my infamous South African Brotha from Cromwell Road in London once said: “This Is Life Bru…”