April 22, 2005

Miyajima Dream

We had a brilliant weekend in Miyajima. Way too tired to write about it in any detail. Yesterday we checked out various shrines and temples, and followed many a meandering path. The weather was beautiful, and we got to eat Hiroshima-yaki. We checked into our ryokan around 3:00, and changed into our yukata. We had an ocean view, and it was phenomenal. Unwound while reading and overlooking the sea. Our dinner was served in our room at 7:00. Fish fish and more fish, The dishes spread across the table and the course kept on coming. After dinner, we went for a walk to see the shrine illuminated, and came back to find our futons set up for the night. We made us of the ryokan’s hotspring onsen before we went to bed. The light flooded our room this morning, beautiful through the paper doors. We had breakfast before checking out, and then we went to climb Mount Misen. It was an amazing trek, quite steep and demanding at times. The scenery on the way was well worth it, and when we reached the top, the beauty 360 degrees around us was overwhelming. Also overwhelming were the near 200 school girls in black tracksuits eating their bentos at the summit. We ended up walking down with them, we kept waiting for them to pass but they never really ended. We made many friends. All in all, the mountain experience was about three hours long and we returned to the bottom sore and exhausted. We went splits on Hiroshima-yaki, and tried kaki-yaki, which was oishii! Around 3:30 we got the ferry, and then the train back to Hiroshima, and then the shinkansen home, sunburnt, euphoric and knackered. We’re leaving in just over two weeks, and what a note to be going out on.

near the floating shrine
atop tatami we sleep
good-bye to Japan