Miyajima Island

Today we took a ferry to Miyajima island. 

The submerged Torii gate marks the entrance to some shrine from 1200ish (our tour guide for Japan is not Evan and he’s scant on details).

The island is a little strange because there are deer wandering around everywhere:

It’s a beautiful island with ancient temples, forests and trails for exploring.  

My ankle is determined to keep me from being too active so we took a cable car (that they refer to as a “ropeway”) to the top of Mt. Misen and had a great view across the water to Hiroshima.  

We had a really cute ice cream cone after descending from the summit.

Stupid deer tried to steal my ice cream!

I got a picture of a crane. Yay!  A bird picture. My trip is complete. 

I asked our guide what this was about. He said the Japanese people believe that horses are a sign of good luck. 

At our meet-up point, they were serving craft beer. I got an IPA, which made me happy and the server seemed happy just to be in the picture. 

In the spirit of “no stone unturned Rik and I decided to participate in one of the local “adventures”. We went to a small shop with elderly Japanese ladies where they teach ancient Japanese traditions. 

First, they dressed us up in traditional garments…(these kimonos are hot as blazes.)

These socks make my big toes seem abnormally long. 

We are too large to pull this Japanese look off but it was fun to try. 

Next up was a calligraphy class. Rik was better at the precise strokes than I but I had a grand old time and got ink all over my fingers.

Here’s me, holding up my creation. It’s not perfect but it’s a good reminder of the fun we had today. The design means “dream”.

Finally: a tea ceremony.  Every picture of us looks like we’re terrified. We really were enjoying ourselves but we’re so intent on listening and performing the movements correctly, they kept asking if we were enjoying the experience.

We got some photos and got ready to leave to race back to the ferry and go back to Hiroshima. 

The group had gone ahead of us and we were using an app to get from the train station back to the mainland to join them for supper. Because of construction and barriers that, apparently the app didn’t know about, we got turned around several times and ended up being led down back alleys.  

It was a long day and I was frustrated over not being able to join the group at our restaurant reservation. We were hungry so, when we were close to the hotel, we saw a small restaurant and paused outside. The owner came out and said “No more Hiroshimas”.

I was frazzled and thinking “What?!” 

He said “Come in” so we followed him dumbly as if he was the pied piper.  His restaurant was dimly lit and almost empty.  He sat us in the far corner and brought us an English menu with an “prix fixe” menu of Italian food. (He sensed I was on the verge and needed a break from Japanese. He was right!)  

Oh.  I finally clued in to his comment. He was reading Rik’s shirt from the Atomic museum.

- Ruth