A walk in the woods - Miyajima

  Miyajima, Chugoku, Japan
Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Today we went to Miyajima to see the beautiful o-torii gate floating in the Inland Sea. it's one of the most photographed sites in Japan and not to be missed. To get there we took a tram from our hostel down to the ferry port and hopped on a JR Ferry across the water. (The ferry ticket was covered by our rail passes).

The beautiful torii gate

It was a beautiful day, still and not a cloud in the sky. The ferry only takes 10 minutes and it took a course in front of the torii gate so that we could take some photos. As in Nara, there are lots of tame deer here, and lots of warning signs, apparently the deer will eat anything, tickets, clothes, small children!

We walked around the bay, under the cherry blossoms and took a good look at the torii gate and the 5 storey pagoda before entering the Itsukushima shrine, all shrines have a torii gate, but this one is very special. The whole shrine is on stilts above the water and it's a lovely setting, the bright vermillion against the blues of the sea and the sky. There was a wedding party here having the longest photo session in front of the gate, they were standing in the same place the whole 40 minutes we walked around the shrine!

We then headed uphill through the Momijidani Park, more deer and blossoms,

More blossom

and then we got 2 different cable cars up to the top of Mount Misen - it's called the Ropeway and it cost 1000yen each - about £7, but it is definitely worth it, the views from the top are stunning. The first thing I noticed when we got to the top however were the monkeys - angry looking red faced monkeys with light blue piercing eyes, but looking back perhaps my monkey-attack fear is a little over the top as they were all just sunbathing, but you can never be too careful :)

Emma on the look out for monkeys

aWe walked around the top of Mount Misen, lots and lots of steep steps and we saw the Reikado Hall where there is a fire lit by Kobo Daishi - the monk who is in eternal meditation in Koya-san - and it has been burning ever since he lit it - this flame also was the pilot flame for the one in the peace memorial park in Hiroshima. We ate some well earned udon noodle soup at the observatory and then started our descent all the way down to Ohmoto park - Mount Misen is 535 metres about sea-level and the walk took us about 2 hours. It was an excellent leg work out (Davina Mccall would be proud) and good practice for the walks we have to come.

Ohmoto park is an explosion of cherry blossom, like nothing we have seen anywhere in Japan, I'm not surprised they make such a fuss over it, it takes your breath away.

We made it to the bay, and the tide had gone out, so the muddy sands were covered in people digging for shell fish. We walked out to sea and walked through the o-torii gate, which is supposed to bring good fortune!

Paul about to walk through the o-torii gate

We then wandered through the touristy streets, bought some of Miyajima's famous maple leaf shaped waffles and watched them being made in amazing machines. Our waffles were filled with chocolate, sweet bean jam, green tea and custard cream - yummy! We also saw the biggest wooden rice spoon in the world - thank goodness we got to see today's superlative sight ! We went home tired and full of waffles.

Yummy Miyajima waffle