I woke up this morning feeling not too crash hot - my cold seems to be a bit flu like and the pain is in my feet and my back. But I soldiered on, because today was an extremely exciting day.
It began with a trip to Miyajima Island. This island is quite famous for its maple trees, although we did miss the peak by one week, which was a shame, as well as their woodwork. Local trinkets include the wooden rice scoop, which was invented to subsidise the local economy as the island is too small and considered too sacred to allow for farming. Much like Nara Park, the island is full of deer, although these deer are not fed by tourists or locals and as such are less likely to approach - although if they smell food they will stalk you persistently. I did see a few tourists that needed deer restraining orders. We explored a couple of the smaller shrines on our way to our major tourist stops, whilst avoiding the cars that ran about the narrow streets. Apparently, there are only four taxis on the island due to small demand and difficulty in driving.
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| 100 stairs from a shrine down to the main street level - and a deer |
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| View of the island from one of the shrines |
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| Back up to the shrine |
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| The island's famous rice scoop - XXL size |
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| Across the water to Hiroshima |
The first stop was Itsukushima Shrine, famous for its gate that exists in the sea. As it was low tide, we actually could walk out to the gate across a bed of sand and seaweed. The shrine itself consists of five separate shrines and is considered a World Heritage Site. The gate has been rebuilt eight times due to rot or typhoon damage. The roof of the shrine was actually made of Cyprus bark pressed together. Every so often the roof starts to peel, or is destroyed in a typhoon and must be replaced, so it is a very high maintenance building.
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| First gate to the Shrine |
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| Me and the main tori gate - as you can see it was accessible today due to low tide |
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| The main Tori Gate - you can see that the base of the pillars has been replaced due to rot |
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| View of the Shrine |
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| The gate from the shrine |
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| Compressed Cyprus bark for the roof |
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| View of the Buddhist Pavilion |
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| Imperial Bridge - so highly arched it required makeshift stairs to actually be used |
Our next stop was a short hike through Omoto Park followed by a visit to Daishoin Temple. The climb was reasonable long, but the view was totally worth it. This temple was also heavily focussed on bringing good luck to visitors, as well as making it easier on the everyday worshipper to gain the most value for their efforts (such as including easier ways to access all the eighty eight shrines for this form of Buddhism (associated with the Dalai Llama) as well as being able to read the complicated Sutra, Buddhist teachings. In a seemingly appropriate way, the bottle of coke I bought at the temple told me to "Be Happy."
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| A deer in what was left of the autumn leaves |
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| View from the Temple over the Island |
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| The decorated shrine - including a sand painting (in the frame) |
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| A cave containing soil from all 88 Buddhist temples |
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| Lucky seven gods - if you landed a coin on their rock you would be blessed with luck |
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| Speak No Evil, See no Evil, Hear no Evil |
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| Buddha's in Beanies! (Depictions of Buddha's disciples with warm hats donated by worshippers) |
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| Coke is feeling very zen right now. |
We had free time after this temple visit and decided to continue our nature walk before experiencing the very busy shopping strip full of tourist items. We went up to the Buddhist temple known as the Hall of 1000 Tatami Mats (due to its size) which was actually incomplete due to the death of the primary funder and as such has no doors nor windows. I also managed to watch the making of the very famous Maple Momiji - a sweet cakey biscuit infused with Maple syrup and occasionally filled with sweet red bean paste. For lunch we had an island speciality - deep fried oysters. They didn't taste like anything (although that could be because I am sick), but the colour of the inside and the texture was pretty off putting, despite some really really good tartar sauce.
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| A view stepping off the bus - the A-bomb dome |
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| Standing on the targeted bridge (which survived the blast, but has since been rebuilt) |
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| Target bridge, about 200m from the hypo-centre of the blast |
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| The A-bomb dome - before and after |
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| Crane at the Children's Peace Monument |
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| Children's Peace Monument |
Our next stop was the Peace Museum. On the way we passed the flame that will burn until all nuclear bombs in the world are disarmed (so probably will, sadly, be eternal) and the arch which lines up the flame and the dome. I wasn't able to get the perfect shot due to someone else standing there for a solid ten minutes in the way, using three different cameras for the photo (not even different lensed DSLR either.) So that was disappointing. However, the Museum itself is phenomenal. There is really no other way to describe it. I have no words for the get wrenching sensation I experienced as I saw photos of the city after the bomb, the way students clothes had been burned, the images of people with charred black skin or the shadows of people on granite. Whilst the exhibits were repetitive, literally tens of burnt uniforms from school children were displayed, each item is matched with a personal story and then to top it off, videos of survivors explaining their experiences in vivid detail. I doubt anyone could walk out of there and not have felt something.
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| The flame against Nuclear Weapons |
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| The arch showing the flame and the dome |
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| A year 7 students burnt uniform - they were working to demolish buildings as fire-breaks before the bomb struck |
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| A diorama showing the destruction and the hypocentre |
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| Three student's clothing was assembled to show a full outfit |
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| Life-sized model of the Little Boy bomb |
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| The shadow of someone waiting at the bank when the bomb struck |
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| Cast Iron doors blown open by the bomb |
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| Melted Rooftiles |
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| White sheet stained by the radioactive black rain that fell after the explosion - some survivors died after drinking this rain due to desperate thirst. |
After completing the museum it was back on the bus to the station for a very long Shinkansen trip across the country back to Toyko, where we will remain until our flight home in eight days. It is already the end of November, incredible to believe. With only one week left in the trip, it is time to make the most of our upcoming free time, to explore and see the sights, because all too soon we will be back on the plane home.
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