Magical Miyajima

One of my day excursions from Iwakuni was to Miyajima Island.  Miyajima has been considered to be holy for most of Japanese history, which is why women weren't allowed on and the elderly were sent elsewhere to die in order to maintain the purity of the island.  Obviously, that is no longer the case.  Miyajima is famous for it's "floating" torii gate.  During high tide, it seems to float on the water, but during low tide, it is surrounded by mud.  

Here is a view of the island from the ferry.  

Here I am inside the Itsukushima Shrine.  

I loved seeing all the men and women in their traditional dress.  

I was even able to see this bride and groom getting their wedding pictures taken.  

As I meandered through the streets here, I saw many scenes like the one below.  The deer are sacred and wander about, but I found them mangy and pretty gross.  I am used to the beautiful deer in Illinois, these were pretty gross.  They didn't seem to ruin the scene below though.  

On my hike to the ropeway, I went through Momijidani Park.  Though it was beautiful here, it is more well known for it's autumn foliage.  

There were two steps to the ropeway to the top.  This was the first one, which lasted for over 15 minutes.  I was in a car with 2 young ladies and 2 older ladies.  One of the older ladies was apparently afraid of heights and curled up in a ball for the entire ride.  She was praying and her friend was rubbing her back the whole way.  I'm not sure how things would have played out had the car stopped or been stalled for a bit.  Thankfully, that didn't happen and I made sure to get in a separate car for the second half of the journey.  

Here's a view from the ropeway.  

After the second ropeway, I was able to have someone take a picture of me.  I thought that all the islands dotting the sea looked like another planet.  The view from the top was magnificent!

This area is known for all its small islands, including Hiroshima which is to the left of this picture.  

After leaving the 2nd ropeway station, I started hiking to Sanki Gongen Do, the temple on the summit of Mt. Misen.  The fire in this building has been burning for more than 1200 years.  In fact, the flame from the memorial in Hiroshima was lit from this fire.  

Rumor has it that holy water boiled by this fire works for all sorts of diseases.  

Here is the plaque outside the Reikado Hall.  

Seriously, after the strenuous hike to the top, I was parched and hungry.  I no more than opened my purse when this little deer came from nowhere to molest me.  He was nuzzling and nibbling and nudging.  I was having no part of it.  After taking a quick picture, I headed back down the mountain toward the ropeway.  

I was happy to get this shot of the ropeway where I originally hiked from.  It seems like a long way away, and that's because it was! 

After riding the ropeways back down the mountain, I came upon this photo opportunity.  Despite the fact that I think these deer are a bit mangy, this was a beautiful scene.  

Since it took so long to hike to the top of Mt. Misen, by the time that I made it back down the mountain, all the other shrines and temples were closed.  That's okay, I just took some self portraits before heading back to the ferry. 

Here is the 5-story pagoda...absolutely beautiful with the setting sun.  

As I walked through town on the way to the ferry, I saw this man grilling oysters.  I had heard that the oysters on Miyajima were famous, so of course I couldn't leave without trying them.  

I was ambitious and ordered two to accompany my Kirin Black beer.  Thankfully, I ordered the beer, because the oysters were disgusting!  They were gooey and full of black gunk...ewwww!  Since the owner was hovering over me asking how fabulous his oysters were, I choked them down without gagging.  Let's just say I won't be asking for more!

It was interesting to see how they were cooked.  This man, wearing flip flops I might add, cooked them on an open flame.  He pried them open while they were snapping and crackling.  Some of them even popped so violently that shell shards flew out into the street.  

This island was magical.  I know that I keep saying that about every place on my spring break, but it was seriously true.  I loved traveling alone and meandering at my own pace.  The only reason why I needed someone else was to take pictures of me in the scenes for my blog.  Ha!