This morning was beautiful, so we decided to try getting to Miyajima Island again after our abortive attempt the day before. However, we had a few jobs to do before we could set off.
We started with breakfast at one of the station cafes, and I confirmed my belief that mackerel is one of the nicest tasting fish around:
I really like Japanese breakfasts, as you may have gathered, even if they don't have a lot of fibre! Muesli, fruit and youghurt with Irish Breakfast tea is going to seem very boring after this.
Then, we went to get some money from the post office ATM since other Japanese ATMs don't seem to like foreign cards. Once that was done, Bob booked our seats for the trip back to Tokyo tomorrow and found out where to catch the train for Miyajimaguchi ferry terminal, while I people watched and admired these little cakes. So cute!
After that, we caught the train for free using our JR passes. I am so glad that our friend Lee put us on to these. It is much cheaper to have them, and you don't have queue to buy a ticket! The train trip took us through what looked like country towns and was much more pleasant viewing than the previous day's tram trip. Most houses seemed to have a little garden to grow vegetables or rice or fruit trees, like figs, pomegranates or persimmons. The trip was much shorter too! Yay!
Miyajimaguchi turned out to have rather a nice station with art works, lanterns and a little stone arrangement in a corner. The town itself is not outstanding, but we saw these weird cats outside one restaurant
and a pottery shop where you could watch the potters work:
( note the way he is sitting).
The trip on the ferry was short and very pleasant. I liked the way that even the terminal looks a bit like a pagoda
On the way, we passed the oyster beds that the area is famous for.
And then we were there, along with a lot of Japanese and foreign tourists. The Japanese ladies were all dressed up with sequins, stockings, high heels, little dresses or suits. The foreigners all had jeans and hiking boots. Different cultural attitudes to the excursion. The island is a famous tourist spot for many reasons. Firstly, it is a holy place for the Shingon sect of Buddhism especially, but it is also ecologically considered special because the forest is regarded as a National Treasure. Deer wander freely through the town and have become quite tame and pushy. The sea around is on the World Heritage List as is the Itsukushima Shrine, but it was the O-torii which was the first thing to really catch our attention as the boat came in at low tide.
The town itself hugs the coast line and is at the foot of the mostly mountainous little island. It consists of a plethora of hotels, souvenir shops, featuring the wooden rice spoons the town is famous for, for some reason:
and eateries, generally featuring the oyster in some shape or form. The oysters here are huge, very meaty, and taste almost like a mussel.
The big charm of course, is the wild deer which come into the town for easy food, and which they ask you not to feed because the deer even will eat plastic and it is affecting their health. They must be a terrific pest to the shop-keepers who keep sticks to shoo them off.
This one tried to eat Bob's map.
And this one was eating the remains of someone's icecream cone.
Speaking of cones, we tried the local manderine cone and the manderine and vanilla combination but decided we still prefer green tea icecream.
But the real reason to come is for the religion and the photography.
We passed under the Five Storied Pagoda (built 1407, and 28 meters high)
as we approached the entry to the Itsukushim Shrine, which is an amazingly bright orange red and at high tide appears to come out of the sea. This shrine is dedicated to three goddesses and was first built in 593, then remodelled in 1168. It consists of a series of rooms all connected by corridors.
The shrine is a working shrine and people came to pray, so we felt a bit intrusive until we noticed Japanese tourists were watching and photographing too. Monks and nuns work around the tourists, generally ignoring us.
I was rather taken with a lot of the decorations in the corridors, like these blinds:
this trough for cleansing yourself before prayer
this gong in a room overlooking the O-torii gate:
some beautiful statues:
When you leave the shrine, there is one of the most improbably steep bridges I have ever seen:
Not very practical at all! Luckily, there is a more useable option which you use to get to the main money-making area of the shrine. There are shops were you can buy memorabilia, and candles and prayer candles, boards, spoons and tags. And there are more shrines for praying at. The constant sound of coins tinkling into the wooden boxes must sound beautiful to the ears of the shrine financiers. It reminds me of the collection boxes in Catholic cathedrals in Spain.
You can do the healthy thing, and climb up to Mt. Misen (535 metres) and look the hovering eagles in the eye, or you can cheat, and go part of the way by the ropeway, or you can be totally unadventurous and miss out on an incredible view and a wonderful sense of achievement. Of course, we did the latter - but we did hesitate over our decision. Instead, we investigated some of the town and its many Edo- look houses and shops.
We then decided on supporting a local restaurant and shared a plate of the local oysters which were grilled in their shells and oh, so delicious. Never tasted anything like it!
I had soba noodle soup with oysters and a drink called Chuhai lemon - syotyu spirit with lemon and soda.
Bob had beef and soba noodle soup and beer, and we were both happy.
We did get some exercise afterwards, perusing the souvenir shops and avoiding buying a lot of the contents:
We did, however, adore some of the beautiful gardens at the back of some of the stores:
The last one had some of the biggest and most beautiful koi carp I have ever seen in my life. We are both a bit disappointed that they are illegal in Australia.
We also found lots more to admire in the town, and we did not see everything!
And naturally, people-watching was fantastic on this island. This little boy was a tourist, like us:
And these ladies were ambassadresses for the island.
This person kept popping up round corners:
However, all good things must come to an end, and our feet decided they had had enough, so, taking a last look at the Oh-torii gate at high tide
we took a ferry and then a train, and went back to the hotel.
Later in the evening, we went out to have our last Hiroshima meal, Okonomoiyaki - a sort of pancake topped with cabbage, bean sprouts, pork, spring onion, noodles and egg, with a sauce on the top. Bob had his with cheese and egg noodles
and I had mine with shrimps and udon noodles. These restaurants seem very popular with men for after work dos. There was a lot of reeling around going on both in and outside most of the restaurants we saw, all of it good natured though!
Tomorrow, the long trip back to Tokyo. Our trip is almost over. How will I cope?
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