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| The Famous O-Torii Gate - the symbol of Miyajima |
Today dawned bright and sunny, a perfect day to go to Miyajima, which is just what we did. So after a poo in the toilet and a bowl of cornflakes, we caught the Rail Star and then the Sakura to Hiroshima and then a local train to Miyajimaguchi where we got a boat across a narrow part of the Setonikai (Inland Sea) to Miyajima Island. Being a beautifully sunny Sunday it was packed full of people - understandably too as it is a very beautiful place.
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| Samuri Tom? |
We walked the main tourist route towards the gate (O-Torii) the main reason why everyone comes here. This route is manned by the tamest deer you are ever likely to meet. They seem very at home amongst the tourists, they don't mind being stroked, having their photos taken etc. Tom even got the courage up to stroke one of them. They are literally everywhere, I even saw one wandering around a shop! We walked along Omotesando Shopping street which is stuffed full of souvenir shops and restaurants, we didn't stop though, we were tight on time and wanted to do other things than shopping.
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| In the cable car |
We made our way to the Ropeway (cable car) which takes you up Mt Misen. This was something Matt wanted to do (last time he did it was 20 years ago), we've already discovered this holiday that Tom likes a cable car ride so it seemed a good thing to do. It was quite pricey at 1,800 Yen each (£15) but we didn't have time to dilly dally so went for it. We waited for the free bus to the cable car station, but we didn't get on it and they only went every 15 mins so Matt put Tom on his shoulders and we walked the 700 meters to it. It was a really beautiful walk through Momijidani Park so we saw it as a blessing the bus had been full - although I'm not sure Matt's back saw it that way! It was full of ornate bridges and water features, very lovely calming and cooling in the heat (it was very very hot today - at a rough guess about 28/29). We got the cable car up Mt Misen it was quite a steep climb, took a good 20 minutes to get to the top via two stretches of cable car. The cars took us to a view point at 430 meters above sea level. The view was a little hazy as it was so hot, but it was still magnificent - you could see across the Setonikai back to Honshu and lots of little islands dotted about. Japan really is a land of contrast it is such a beautiful country when it comes to landscape, but their cityscapes really are very dull, verging on ugly - all to do with very limited available land for construction - the mountains here are very very steep and almost impossible to build on.
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| View of the Setonaikai from the top of Mt Misen |
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| Mr Tumble sat on a cake? |
Tom was very excited to be at the top and immediately started climbing up rocks, steps and generally being silly - he enjoyed the view but seemed much more interested telling me that Mr Tumble had sat on a cake! (a scene from one of his favourite TV programmes). We took advantage of Tom's good mood and decided to start one of the mountain trails. There are a number of sites to see as well as another observatory right at the top of the mountain. I thought we would see how far up Tom would go before he started to tire. Unfortunately the start of the trail was all down, not what we had planned - we got more and more worried about the return trip up to the cable car station. Then we saw a sign post saying there was a trail down the mountain which was 1.8km, we decided to take a risk and do it. It was pretty steep formed mainly of steps but Tom did really well - holding my hand but doing it all himself. Just before half way Tom started to flag. He was tired and hungry. I managed to keep him going with a banana but then I stumbled whilst holding his hand, so he fell over too and that was it. Matt put him on his shoulders and continued down the steps with him whilst I carried both bags. When we got to a flattish bit we put him down again but there was no way he was going to walk so I put him on my shoulders for the last bit. With hindsight we should have packed a picnic, gone half way, had a picnic and then carried on, then Tom would have been able to go at his pace and I'm sure he would have made it under his steam, however, he was hungry and we were hungry and therefore probably putting too much pressure on him on to go faster which probably made matters worse for him (hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it). Oh well, never mind, we got to the bottom in the end and it was a very beautiful walk in the forest.
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| At the top |
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| Negotiating rocks |
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| Down many many steps |
The trail ended up at Momijidani Park so we had a sit down. There was easy access to a river there with waterfalls and stepping stones - Tom and I dipped our toes in it - it was wonderful. Tom went from grizzling back to his happy self and even went across the stepping stones with me. An old lady who also walked down the trail gave Tom half an orange which perked him up even more. We then walked down a little further to a tea room and had a bowl of udon each.
By now time was of the essence so we walked back to the main drag and tourist hell! We had had the mountain pretty much to ourselves which was lovely. The tide of tourists we hit was quite horrible, Matt said that he had never seen it so busy before. We even saw some other Caucasian children - the first since arriving here 3 weeks ago. Anyhow we went for a look at the O-Torii (gate) took some obligatory photos of it and then headed back along the shore road to the boat terminal.
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| Happy at the bottom after a foot bath |
We got the boat and local trains back to Hiroshima only stopping to find the stamps for Tom's book which is now pretty full - we got some good ones today.
We then got ourselves a bento box each for dinner and a Rail Star Kodama back to Aioi. Tom fell asleep on me almost immediately and was out for the count for the best part of an hour. We then had our bentos: various fried things with rice, arriving home just in time to Skype with Grannie & Grandpa which was good, Tom even sat still for the first part as he was really looking forward to seeing them - especially as he did a poo in the toilet this morning.
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| Mummy your hat looks better on me |
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| Tom in front of the gate |
Note to self: I've been to Miyajima twice now, but both times it has been rushed due to being on a schedule. I would like to go back and stay overnight in a quieter part of it so we can properly explore it, I think there are many many more things to see and do there, especially trails. I would like to get to the top of the mountain and do a bit more exploring. You can also hire cycles which could be a really nice way to see the island.
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