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Published: January 25th 2010
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Miyajima
The Floating Torii Gate Hiroshima was an awesome experience. The city is well rebuilt, but does not let it's past fall by the wayside. We spent our last night out at the Japanese Arcades playing a lot of interesting video games, which is a huge passtime in Japanese culture. Today we were back on the road, this time to an island outside of Hiroshima called Miyajima. This island contains a very famous Japanese icon..the floating torri gate. We took a ferry over to Miyajima and stepped onto the island only to be surrounded by deer. These deer would eat anything! They were coming after the papers in our hands and though they got a couple of edges, I was luckily able to keep my map of the island safe from them.
With the tide out, we made our way down to the torri gate, which was not yet floating. We were able to walk right up to it and take photos before going off to explore the island. Miyajima is also famous for their oysters, so we stopped for some grilled oysters and I got to use a fork for the first time since being in Japan! It felt weird. But, the oysters were
Miyajima
The wild deer tasty and from here I split off from the group. The majority of people decided to check out the town, the shrines and temples, and then take a ropeway to the top of Mt. Misen, the holy mountain, to see the spectacular views of the Seto Inland Sea. I decided it was a perfect opportunity for a hike and some alone time to clear my mind. There are three hiking trails leading up Misen and I chose the Daisho-in Course which offers the nicest views and is not as steep as the other two. This course started at the Daisho-in Temple, which was beautiful in itself with many small statues of Buddha to keep me company in the beginning of my journey.
From here on it was about 2 hours of stairs and steep pathways and I cannot even imagine the steeper trails, because this one was a workout for me! It felt great though and about 20 minutes from the top I ran into one of my fellow travelers, Michael, who had also decided to hike. We hiked the last bit to the top, which truly did have spectacular views. Mt. Misen is the highest peak on Miyajima
Miyajima
The (not yet) Floating Torii Gate at 500 meters above sea level. It is said that Buddhism was first practiced on Mt. Misen by Kobo Daishi, the founder of the Shingon sect and one of Japan's holiest religious persons. Near Misen's summit, several temple structures stand, which belong to Daisho-in Temple at the base of the mountain. Of particular interest are the Misen Hondo (Misen Main Hall) and the Reikado (Temple which Protects Flame). Like its name implies, the Reikado protects a flame, which is believed to have been first lit by Kobo Daishi when he began worshiping on the mountain. It has been burning ever since, and was also used to light the Flame of Peace in Hiroshima's Peace Park.
Both the views all along the hike, but especially at the top, along with seeing this flame made the hike beyond worth it! I felt great and as I began to make my way down the mountain I saw plenty of monkeys and deer. Michael and I got back to sea level and went to see the torri gate once more as the tide was in and it was now floating. It was perfect timing, as the sun was setting and we got some
Miyajima
Oysters! great photos before making our way back to the ferry to head back to the mainland. Now, off to Kyoto!
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