Japan 2006 part 2: Miyajima
For this second set of pictures from my first trip to Japan, I decided on Miyajima. You can see part 1 here. Miyajima is an island famous for beautiful mountainous scenery, a variety of shrines and temples and, most importantly, the INSANE DEER.
(keep in mind these pictures are on old polaroids, please excuse the quality)
This island was actually in one of my first Japanese textbooks. There was a comic about two people visiting Miyajima, seeing the deer, and taking the ropeway to the top of the the mountain. We were all excited to see how the real thing compared.
As we approached the island, we were greeted by the sight of Itsukushima Shrine's famous floating Torii:
The original shrine dates back to the 6th century, but the current building is from the 1500s
After arriving on the island and being accosted by the crazy deer...
we set on our way towards Mount Misen, the 'Sacred Mountain', visited in the year 806 by the founder of the "true word" school of Buddhism. On the way to the mountain there is a row of shops on either side selling all sorts of things. It's mostly touristy stuff, but there's also some great food to be found.
Having reached the ropeway, our class split into two camps: those who would ride the ropeway to the top, and those, like me, who wanted to make the hike. Not everyone who decided to make the hike could handle it, and we lost some people to fatigue along the way, but however difficult it may have been, the journey up was beautiful enough to be entirely worth it.
The fact that it's mostly stairs up the hiking trail didn't help
And as an added bonus, some Japanese Snow Monkeys were waiting to greet us at the top!
Miyajima was a lot of fun. It's always great to be able to get close to animals in the wild, the scenery is beautiful, it's full of history, and if you can't make the hike up Mount Misen, there's always the ropeway!
Thanks for looking!