Vacation part 6: Miyajima

After spending the day learning about the history of Hiroshima and the atomic bomb, it was nice to go to Miyajima island, where we saw deer, shrines, and an incredible view of the ocean and islands around the prefecture, which is located near the southern tip of Honshu, Japan's largest island. We took a short ferry there, and upon leaving the departure area, were immediately greeted by deer.

Already, this was turning out to be a good day. Just look at that adorable deer! You can hear my parents in the background making similar comments, too.

In Japan, the place most famous for deer is probably Nara, the capital city of Nara prefecture, where the deer have learned to bow in order to receive food. On Miyajima, the deer aren't that practiced in the ways of procuring meals--in fact, one of the rules regarding the deer is that you are not allowed to feed them, since they normally live off of vegetation and human food can make them ill. That doesn't stop them from trying, however. Although the deer are very accustomed to humans and casually walk among them (even though lots of kids stop to try and pet the deer and play with them), whenever someone has food they'll try to crane their necks up to reach it. But for someone who has only encountered deer as roadside casualties or pests that sneak into people's gardens, it felt very unique and exciting to be able to stand right beside a deer. I even got to pet one! Which, technically, is against the rules, but I saw other people doing it so I caved to conformity, and to my own personal desire to pet a deer without having to worry about ticks. 

After cooing over the deer and having them stare at us indifferently after they realized we had no food, we went to the main reason for our trip to Miyajima: Itsukushima Shrine, one of the more famous shrines in Japan and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Although it was originally constructed sometime in the 6th century, it was destroyed and rebuilt a few times, the current iteration dating back to the 16th century. It was built disconnected from the island, which itself is viewed as sacred, so that when the tide comes in, the shrine appears to be floating on the water. This confused me when we first arrived, because I saw pictures online of the shrine on the water, but since we arrived a low tide there was no water around the shrine, just the sand floor. Later on, though, I got to see the floating shrine I had expected!

However, the shrine is most famous for its large torii gate, called Otorii (which means 'big torii'). This gate stands at 16 meters (roughly 52 feet, for Americans like me), and is probably the most famous image of the island. It adorns mugs, shirts, and other paraphernalia, and is a unique symbol of Miyajima and Itsukushima Shrine. The torii, too, was built around the tide so that when the high tide comes it appears to be floating. At low tide it is supposedly reachable by foot, but I wasn't aware of that until I did some more research for this blog.

These are three of my favorite pictures of the Otorii, but I took a lot more! I wish I could have been closer to it to get a sense of its height, but as I hope these pictures show, even from afar it makes a striking image. 

Later on in the day, we decided to take the Miyajima ropeway, which takes people by lift up to Mount Misen. This was something I hadn't expected to do, but that we decided after finishing our exploration of Itsukushima Shrine. I'm glad we did; from Mount Misen, you get an incredible view of all the other islands around Hiroshima, and of the massive forestland that covers Miyajima island. 

Mount Misen was said to have been visited by a famous Buddhist monk in the year 806, and there is a temple on the mountain, as well as other attractions besides. Sadly, we didn't explore Mount Misen very diligently, because the ropeway operates on a tight schedule, and if we missed the last lift down we would have to descend the mountain by foot--something that none of us, after hours of walking, were willing to do. However, we did get to see the view from Mount Misen, which alone was well worth the trip.

Japan is an island, of course, but until seeing this view it never really sunk in for me. I had never really experienced Japan as an island before; although in Akita, I live in an area fairly close to the Japan Sea, I never really ventured towards there, nor have I ever really seen Japan in such a way that I could get a sense of its identity as an island nation. I have travelled largely on the mainland, not leaving the landmass of Honshu save for going to Miyajima. Japan always seemed like a solid landmass to me, but seeing this view of all the scattered islands in the seemingly endless expanse of ocean, I saw something that I'd never imagined before. I had never seen this sort of geography before Miyajima, not really. I've seen islands before, of course, but I never really had the experience of feeling like I was on one. That, or I was just too young to notice or care before. Probably that.

Basically, being able to see Japan from this perspective was very beautiful and I highly recommend it!

Miyajima was the last real tourist-y thing we did on the trip; the rest was a whirlwind of travel, and was exciting in an entirely different way. It's a long story, and one that I might tell later, but right now I lack the energy to write more. But the important thing is that we spent our time together, as a family, and saw lots of incredible sights that I never imagined being able to see before coming to Japan. 

I hope to never forget these sights and experiences, which, as I mentioned in an earlier post, is why I'm writing this to begin with. That, and boredom, but boredom doesn't sound as sophisticated. To the very few people, most of whom are likely my family members, who are reading my posts, thank you very much! I do enjoy writing, so I appreciate anyone who reads what I write and likes it. Or doesn't like it, but takes the time to read anyway. Either is fine. 

Ideally, I'd get to go back to all these places and see all that I wasn't able to see, because I know that there was so much left unseen and undone on this trip; there just wasn't enough time to explore everything, and we saw so many interesting things that we would have loved nothing more than to do just that. But realistically, that costs lots of money and takes lots of time, so I'm just thankful that I was able to see such incredible things and have such incredible experiences at least once in all these places that are so rich with history, culture, and beauty.