On our second day in Hiroshima, we set out for Miyajima Island. I thought maybe we would be able to incorporate it into our first day since we managed to cover everything we'd wanted to see on foot, but it was never discussed because we fell asleep. So before heading off to Miyajima, I thought again naively: "we might have to find something else to do later today. There's no way this will take more than an hour or two." So boy was I surprised when it turned out we had to get on a tram to Yokogawa station, take a train to Miyajimaguchi for about a half hour, and THEN hop on a ferry to get to the island. When we got there around 1PM, we sat down overlooking the ocean to enjoy the avocados we had packed for the trip. "Oh look," we noted on the way. "There are wild deer here. Ha. Remember when we went to Nara and one ate our map? That was funny." Just when I started to enjoy my avocado and try to figure out the tourist map of Miyajima, a deer approached me. "Oh hello, Mr. Deer," I said, "this is MY avocado. And MY--" And it happened again. Damn thing bit a chunk out of our map. They are not afraid of humans, and they really like paper. Later another grabbed a pamphlet out of Seth's back pocket and he just kept hitting it on the nose in their game of tug-a-war until it let go. It was not happy. I told a Spanish tourist that was the third time it had happened after two maps and he said, "Next time you want to know where to go, you must ask him, 'where is that place?!'"
After going back to the ferry station to get another map and enjoying our avocados on some stairs near the bikes and NOT overlooking the ocean, we headed into town. It's a pretty small island that's easily navigable on foot. Miyajima Island (which means "shrine island") has always been considered a holy place, and women weren't orginally allowed to enter. They even used to ship old, sick people away so they could die away from the island and its purity would be preserved. There are lots of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines and they try to keep it well maintained, so it looks like it was built in the Edo era. We looked through the shops and didn't buy anything, as usual, except for a vanilla-mandarin swirl ice cream in a cone and some ground-up and fried oyster in stick form (because it's oyster. In stick form. Yes). We stopped to check out the floating tori, a huge bright orange gateway on the water off the island. We passed the Itsukushima Shrine, which is a huge complex of halls on stilts built out on the water, originally made so that laymen could visit the island without soiling it. Basically they were really concerned with the island's purity. Now you can go anywhere though.
Our favorite part was Senjokaku, the pavillion of 1000 tatami mats. They used to measure area of a building in their sleepling mats, called tatami mats (or maybe they still do!) And I'm not sure if that's double bed or single, but either way you know if 1000 of them can fit into the pavillion, it must be enormous. And it was. This place was built in 1587 out of wood! I'm sure they still maintain it but I was just super impressed at how big it was. There were also huge paintings on wooden canvases all over the ceiling (maybe also tatami-mat-sized?), hanging down in between the ceiling boards. Some of them showed their wear and tear, and some looked great. It cost $1 to get in (hence why we did it and not the $3 Itsukushima shrine) and next door was a colorful 5-story pagoda named Gojuto.
We took two cable cars up to the top of the mountain called Mount Misen, from where you could see a mini Mount Fuji, and light the eternal flame of love. I don't know what that means, but we did it and a guy took a picture for us. I think it probably has something to do with a happy marriage, so we figured it couldn't hurt. We took some pictures from the top and then walked down the very steep mountain (to save $16 on another cable car ride) in our flip flops to the bottom, where we were determined to get our oyster fix one more time. I found it at a woman selling oysters with cheese broiled on top! We had to wait ten minutes to get it but man was it worth it. It was 4:30 and we wanted to eat one more thing before we left.... but then all the restaurants closed :(. The hungry bear inside Seth finally came out since we hadn't eaten much that day, and we were just working on where we could eat when we made it back to Hiroshima in an hour, when the man with oyster-and-curry-stuffed bread appeared around the corner. Ah yes. That's what we ate. It was magical. I will never forget you and your life-saving properties, oyster curry bread.
That night Seth announced he wanted a "big, stupid burger" because he'd read about a place in our tourist map of Hiroshima with good burgers and had to get his fix. Well guess what. We had eaten oysters and raw fish with every meal for two days straight, and he got food poisining from the burger. It was amazing. I had a bite of it and still feel a little sick, but he was up all night in the hostel bathroom, purging his body of burger poisin. We won't be eating western food anymore on this trip then.
Now we're on the Hakati Super Express train bound for Tokyo!! We have a hotel in Shinjuku, a happenin' section of the city. To be continued!
Things about Japanese culture so far:
- Note to self: stop saying "hi!" Everyone thinks you're saying "yes." Just bite the bullet and find it in yourself to say "konichiwa;" they don't think you're making fun of them. It means "hello." I guess I don't want to be like the kids in Korea who follow you yelling "HELLO" because you're white.
- The trains? Extra punctual. It's not just a stereotype. If it says the train will leave at 9:53, you'd better not get to the track at 9:53 and 30 seconds.
- Everyone here follows the rules. The cab driver who took us to our hotel in Fukuoka actually stopped at a red light until it was green, even though there was nobody going the other way. And he went the speed limit. Seth and I were pretty shocked after riding in "every man for himself" style taxis in Korea for two years. It actually reminds me of Germany a lot.
- I haven't been cursed at or gotten a funny look from an old lady once since I've been here, as far as I know! I have a habit of looking our for that since they will do anything to make sure you know they are first class citizens in Korea. Today an old lady moved her bag out of a chair and slid over for me so I could sit down next to Seth while waiting for the train to Tokyo.
- If you come here, bring lots and lots of money. Seth and I have managed to keep everything under our $100-per day limit for food and extra stuff for both of us, but we're pretty conscious of it.
Next stop Tokyo! Let's hope we're feeling well enough to go exploring on Thursday...
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