Miyajima and Okayama

Monday, April 27, 2009

Today, Jeff, Carisa and I explored the island of Miyajima. We woke up early and set out for the temple on the water, home to the famous Itsukushima Torrey Gate that is partially submerged when the tide comes in. There is something incredibly serene about the gate and its reflection on the water.

We finished at the Itsukushima Shrine at about 8:30, and it was already hot. We went to get a snow cone (an excellent breakfast, I must add) and met up with Derrick and Seth. The five of us decided to pay the ten dollars for a ride on the gondola/ropeway up the mountain rather than walk from the Momijidani Station to the Kayadani Station towards the top of Mt. Misen. It was a good decision seeing as the peak of the mountain was somewhere around 1700 feet up. Swinging out over a forest, with at least a 500 foot drop below you is quite an experience, especially when you’re afraid of heights. I actually did better than I was expecting, and the views were phenomenal.

At the top, we were greeted by an observatory and views of the ocean and surrounding islands, as well as monkeys. The monkeys are always my favorite, but the scenery on the mountain was beautiful. We spent quite a while with the monkeys, and then headed to the Sankido Hall and the Misen Hondo Main Hall and rest area, which was quite a hike. We reached the rest area, only to realize that it was another incredibly steep climb up to the highest observatory, the Mt. Misen Observatory. It was definitely worth the hike because the views were awesome. We got some funny pictures of each other as well.

After that, we started heading down the mountain, taking our time. We stopped along the trail to snap some pictures at the Dainichido Hall, The Reikado Hall,and some awesome “band” pictures at a dam. We stopped to check out the Daishoin Temple towards the bottom of the mountain, which was pretty nice, but it must have taken us close to 2 hours to get down, so we were all pretty tired. It was about 2 pm by then, so we went to get some food with D Choi.

We were thinking about going to a beach on the other side of the island before heading to Okoyama, but we kind of ran out of time. We ended up missing the ferry that the rest of the class took and had to get to Okoyama ourselves. Before we split up with Don, we double and triple checked that we had the correct directions, and yet, we did not. The directions Don gave us were to take “the train we took to get here” all the way to Okoyama. What Don failed to mention was that we were supposed to transfer to a bullet train at Hiroshima. So we ended up sitting on the standard train for like an hour and a half before we finally said screw it and figured out ourselves where to transfer to the bullet train. By the time we got to Okoyama (at around 8 or 9) we were all more than a little upset. The lack of organization on the trip is really starting to get to some of us, and I’m a little concerned that I won’t know my schedule for Tokyo until it’s too late to make plans with my dad’s friend and his daughters while I’m there. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure it out, because I’m really looking forward to meeting them.

Tonight we went out for food and got a few drinks, and then we just hung out and talked for a while. Now we’re all ready for bed…finally. Tomorrow we’re going to Korakuen, a picturesque garden in Okoyama, as well to Kurashiki for the City Art Museum by Kenzo Tange. I will try to post pictures asap because I have some really beautiful ones of the island.