Miyajima hills and shrine, near Hiroshima, Japan
After our brief but enjoyable stay in the Kiso Valley, we had taken a series of trains through the southern half of Honshu to Hiroshima and then another to the harbour where we would catch the ferry to Miyajima island. It's a JR-operated ferry, so the Japan Railpass covered my trip. We had set out in heavy rain in the morning; now it was dry and warm but very humid. Sitting on the deck of the ferry we could see the island getting closer, and the golden-red shape of the famous torii emerging against the dark wooded hillside. It seemed to glow, maybe because of the misty backdrop of wooded hills. Already I could begin to see why this is one of the three most famous views in the whole of Japan, and perhaps the most photographed. Over that day and the next I managed to add quite a few more shots to the total.
We had booked a ryokan for the last night of the holiday together - then Catriona would make her way back to Niigata to pack up her things, and I would have a couple more days to fend for myself before flying home. These traditional guest houses are guaranteed to provide a genuinely Japanese welcome and meals, at a higher price than the more regular minshuku. We weren't quite sure where the ryokan was situated, or how far it was from the ferry terminal, so Catriona phoned them and was told someone would come to pick us up. Waiting beside a memorial by the roadside, we were given quite a shock when a pair of cute looking deer wandered up and proceeded to start trying to eat our rucksacks. True! We had to fend them off and move the rucksacks and ourselves, but not before a couple of luggage labels had been consumed.
Fortunately we didn't have to wait long for our lift, and were driven through the narrow shopping streets of the little town, then up through parkland where the ryokan was situated. After being shown our room and having the mealtimes explained, we quickly set out for a walk up Mount Misan around 3 pm. This would be our last chance of the holiday for a proper walk, as we had to leave again the following morning.
A path led from the ryokan, through the parkland then up a little valley past a stream with man-made cascades. The valley became less ornamental as we went higher, up a series of flights of steps. Some were in need of repair. We pushed on at a steady pace, but were soon getting hot and sticky in the warm heavy air.
As we approached the skyline, a huge wasp or hornet appeared from the trees and started flying menacingly close to us. Oh dear. We decided we might be able to outrun it, and headed along the ridge to the right, through trees then up more steps. Eventually we did shake it off, and continued at an easier pace, climbing higher and higher over the rocks. We reached a flat area with a small shrine, and a series of little piles of stones which Catriona thought were in memory of children who had died.
We went on up the path, passing more piles of stones, and on over more enormous boulders until we arrived at the top of the first hill. There was a square café building with a couple of people sitting outside taking some refreshment. A young deer was nuzzling around a sign post. We looked for the view from the rocks, but it was difficult to see much through the misty humid air.
We headed back down to the ridge, and along to the northern summit. Several signs warned us not to feed the monkeys, but we looked in vain for any sign of the monkeys themselves. This path took us to the top of a cable car route, and another viewpoint. Still not much to see. We should have come up this way first, as in order to go down by a different route we had to go all the way back along the ridge, around the side of the first summit we had climbed, and then further along the ridge before turning right down a valley leading back to the town. Fortunately the giant wasp wasn't hanging around waiting for us.
It was a pleasant descent, with views of cascades in the stream to our right, and a number of little shrines among the rocks. As we turned along the hillside there were fine views below of the torii against the grey-green water. The path ran down beside a fine looking temple, nestline in the valley on our left, but we didn't have time to stop. We went a little further down, then turned right onto a path through the park which eventually took us back to the ryokan. The park had a very quiet feel to it under the heavy sky, with only one or two other people around: a bit like the deserted picnic area and camp site at Sounkyo at the start of the holiday.
We could relax at the ryokan after our walk, and had time for a good shower each, before changing into our yucatas. Our room had a kind of inner balcony with a wide window looking down into a pond with lots of carp swimming around. Then we were shown through to the dining room. Our hostess seemed reserved at first, but once we had slipped into the conversation that we were father and daughter she seemed to relax and became quite chatty, mixing a few English expressions with Japanese. It was a superb Japanese meal, and by now I had become quite used to some of the strange fish dishes, the seaweed and the pickled vegetables. The beer tasted particularly refreshing.
The breakfast next morning was splendid as well, and after packing up our stuff we were given a lift to the ferry terminal where we were able to deposit our rucksacks in lockers and then explore the little town. It seemed to be mostly made up of a couple of shopping streets and the road along the shoreline. The side of the road was lined with stone lanterns. We followed this around to the bay where the torii stood proudly in the shallow water - at low tide it is less elegantly surrounded by mud. It acts as the gateway for the Itsukushima shrine at the head of the bay.
To the left, steps led up to a pagoda and a large timber hall; we walked around this and back down again to the shrine. We passed a small building which housed a wooden replica of a sacred white horse. We didn't understand the significance of this, although we had seen a live version at Nikko. The shrine buildings were the same red colour as the torii, and stood on poles above the mud. Open-air corridors led round, past the shrine ornaments, and tiny crabs played in pools of water below.
We walked out on the far side, past a tall tree with branches spread out like a fan. There were more shops here and a little wood carver's workshop. We bought ice creams topped with fluorescent fruit sauce, which we ate whilst sitting on the shore in the shade of pine trees next to a line of stone lanterns. A man was bent over on the water line looking for cockles, and a heron marched through the shallows nearby. It was warm and sunny now, and we could see across the strait to the suburbs of Hiroshima. This was one of those moments of contemplation and sheer relaxation.
More than anywhere else we had visited, Miyajima seemed to bring together combinations of natural and man-made shapes - trees, hills, roofs, lanterns, herons - providing a remarkable series of striking images.
Then it was 11.00 a.m. and we had to head for the ferry. On the way back there were a couple more opportunities for Catriona and I to compete with "most unusual" photos. I took one of her looked through a hollow tree trunk, and she took one of the torii seen behind the roofs of shrine buildings. With all the photographic activity over the past couple of weeks, I had run out of film, and had to call in to a shop to buy another pack of 3 films. Once again I noticed that prices seemed pretty similar to those in the UK. We retrieved our rucksacks from the lockers and boarded the ferry.
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