After a lovely chat with a very friendly turtle and a nice nap on a park bench (there are few more relaxing things than napping in a Japanese garden!) it was off to Miyajima -- one of the top-three most gorgeous and photogenic places in all of Japan (or so says Wikipedia) -- and the place I was most looking forward to visit during our trip.
Miyajima is most famous for its "floating" shrine and torii gate, which can be appreciated best at high tide. However, by the time we had successfully taken a bus, street car, and ship, it was low tide and the "floating" torii was stuck in the mud. So to pass the time, we enjoyed one of Miyajima's most popular occupants -- very friendly deer.
We discovered that if you feed them French fries, they will adopt you and follow you home. This man and his baby are proof!
Then it was time to take the cable car up to Mt. Misan....
...where were greeted with this Ingrish warning. Little did we know!
On Mt. Misan we were joined by Miyajima's second most famous occupants -- monkeys!!!
They were quite cute -- for monkeys! Actually, they were complete clowns and obviously loved all of the attention.
As we continued on our hike on Mt. Misan, we saw some beautiful views of the ocean...
...a very tasty Mound bar...
...and a very stern guard of the"eternal" flame. 
Housed in the below building, the "eternal flame" has been burning for thousands of years (according to the placard), and in fact, its fire lit the "peace flame" in Hiroshima that will not be extinguished until all nuclear weaponry has been destroyed.
Supposedly, water boiled over the flame has healing powers for all kinds of diseases, and for only 500 yen (approximately $5.00), one could partake of its "miracle." All I could think of was Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan women at the well and how lost the Japanese people truly are.
After a brief respite, and a bottle of Japanese lemonade (complete with a glass ball inside the bottle), we decided we should start hiking back because we didn't want to miss high tide or the last cable car down since we were told that anyone who was late, would have to walk down the mountain themselves (at least an 90 minute hike). As we headed back, we noticed that the clouds were looking ominous the temperature dropped. Soon rain was pattering around us. However, the cable was still running so we got in line. 
Just as we were about to board, the technicians announced that they were stopping the cars due to the weather. So, for the next few hours, we entertained ourselves with talking, games, singing, and counting the length of time between lightening flashes and thunder blasts. When things continued to look grim, we dug in our backpacks to scrounge together our meager snacks. As much as being stuck on top of the mountain wasn't exactly "fun" we decided it was better than being stranded in a metal cable car in the middle of a valley in a lightening storm! 
By the time, the cable car was finally opened, it was dark and the tide was going out again. However, we were determined to see the shrine and torii since we had made the trek all the way to Miyajima. This is what we saw.
This was what were supposed to see according to a postcard in one of the gift shops.
But all was not lost, the world's largest wooden rice paddle was still visible!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment