Kyō Watashi no tanjōbi imasu. Watashitachi wa Miyajima ikimashita.

Saturday 2 July 2016

Another warm and humid day in Japan. Based on our previous experience of hunger-pangs on busy days of sightseeing, today we stocked up on breads, snacks and cans of coffee from our local supa, before taking a local JR train to Miyajimaguchi then a ferry to Miyajima. 

This small island, in the Seto Inland Sea, just off Hiroshima is a National Park and world heritage site. It's also a very popular tourist destination with the most famous, and oft photographed, attraction being the vermilion Torii (shrine gates) of the Itsukushima Shrine. 

When we arrived it was low tide, so we were able to walk out to the Torii across the mud flats. This impressive structure, while looking like it has foundations deep into the seabed actually sits on the surface under its own weight and, at high tide it becomes surrounded by water and almost appears to float in the small bay in front of Itsukushima.

In Melbourne we have all experienced pesky seagulls at the seaside, hanging around in the hope of scavenging a hot potato chip or food scrap. Well at Miyajima, instead of seagulls they have wild deer. These are everywhere around Miyajimacho (the town on Miyajima) and when you first get off the ferry, it’s all very cute; but the novelty quickly wears off! As it was late morning, we were a bit hungry so Joel opened his backpack for some sweet bread rolls - big mistake, as suddenly we were being stalked by two or three of these persistent deer intent on taking anything they could straight from our hands. Only a quick march onto the mudflats managed to rid us of our unwanted ‘new friends’.

We took the two stage ropeway (gondola cable cars) up Mt Misen, the highest mountain on the Island. There was a lookout at the top of the ropeway but, with the overcast conditions and sea hazy, photographs didn't do justice to the spectacular views across to Hiroshima bay and the surrounding islands.

We walked the summit trail to the Misen Hondo Hall which marks the place where Kōbō-Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, meditated for 100 days following his return from China in the 9th century. Adjacent is the Reikado (eternal flame) Hall that contains a flame that has burned continuously since it was lit by Kōbō-Daishi. (It was also used as the pilot light for the “Flame of Peace” of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.) There were a bunch of beanie clad, spectacle wearing Jizo statues around the area of the halls – very cute!

We didn’t walk all the way to the summit observatory as the conditions weren't that favourable for the views. However, rather than returning on the ropeway, we chose to hike down the mountain on the Misen Climbing Course beside the Momijidani River. This was great, as it got us away from the rest of the tourist hoards and the trail took us through the primeval forest on the mountainside, with picturesque view of the cascading river. The descent was only a bit over 2kms and took about an hour down stone steps and slippery gravel path, but really enjoyable.

After a treat of Melon Pan Ice, we headed back to have another look at the Torii. 

The tide was coming in now, and while not quite as spectacular as high tide, we could see the effect of the Shrine Gates ‘floating’ in the bay….

We did the tourist thing – wandered down Omotesando, the Main Street, poking around a few souvenir shops and buying some momiji manju, a local specialty – small maple leaf shaped cake filled with sweet red bean (or other flavoured) paste. We also checked out the worlds largest shakushi (rice scoop) – not quite the same scale as Queensland’s big pineapple….

On the way home we stopped off at our local supa to stock up on a range of yummy Japanese foods for a big feast for dinner…. after all it was my birthday, and what better way to celebrate than to be on holidays with my family!! (Only thing we couldn't find were candles for the cake, but this didn't stop the singing)