Deer and Seashells at Miyajima

After we went through Itsukushima Shrine, we were hungry.  We decided to hit some of the food booths that were nearby and get some lunch.  Along the way, we kept getting distracted by deer.

While we played with these guys, we ate some different meats on sticks.  Grilled pork, beef, and some fried oysters.  It was all pretty yummy and we were able to keep the deer away from the food.

We had planned on hiking up to the peak of Mt. Misen and taking the ropeway down, but if we were going to make it to the Hiroshima Peace Museum we were going to have to let it go.  It was hard not to do this hike because there are some interesting shrines along the way and the view from the peak is supposed to be quite spectacular, but we simply didn't have time.

Deer and lanterns....

Deer and torii gates....

As we made our way over to the beach, we saw some "samurai warriors". 

I guess some people decided the huge prices to be able to dress up like a samurai was worth it. 

These two had swords and were doing a mock battle.

 Deer and boats....

 Deer and sand!

We spent a few minutes wandering around the beach looking for shells.  We found some along with some crabs, and some deer droppings!  We have looked for shells on many beaches, but this is the first time we have found deer droppings on a beach!

Each of the kids got some shells and some of the sacred sand of Miyajima to take home with them.  When we get back to America, we will put the sand and shells in some glass jars so we can always have a small part of the island of the gods with us.  As we were finishing up, this deer came over to help us.  He tried to eat our bags. 

We want to spend about two days here and explore every inch of this fun, beautiful, magical place!  It is not a large island, it would be such a fun adventure to get a small boat and sail around it.  We all hope we can come back someday....we enjoyed our time here so much!  It wasn't long enough!!
Boyers love Miyajima!  Boyers love Japan!!

Itsukushima Shrine

 

The first record for Itsukushima Shrine was recorded in the year 811.  It is a shrine built in the sea.  There are many theories as to why it was built in the ocean water.  Some think it was an attempt to build a shrine to honor the goddess of the sea.  Or, it was build as a manifestation of the faith in the Buddhist belief of the Pure Land. It was believed that when people died, their soul crossed over by boats into the "next world" to go to paradise, the Buddhist Pure Land. Others say it was built in the ocean because Miyajima was sacred land and couldn't have a shrine on its soil. 

Whatever the reason, it's neat to see a shrine and a torii gate all "floating" on the ocean.

 

This shrine is a series of covered walkways and rooms open to the weather and the ocean view.  When there are storms, the shrine will receive a beating from the ocean waves.  Because the foundation posts are submerged in the water, they decay over time. Also, the cleaning of algae and leveling of the sandbar are quite unique for shrine maintenance.  There is a lot of work that goes into keeping this shrine as well-maintained and beautiful as it is!

As luck would have it, we got here just as a wedding was finishing up!

What a nice place to get married!  He is handsome and she is beautiful! 

As tourists were gathered around taking pictures (us included), their photographer was busy getting their kimonos just right and showing them how to hold their fans for their wedding photos. 

Inside the covered pathway.

Inside the Haiden, there were several people praying with priests.  Hard to tell that a wedding just took place here.

Itsukushima Shrine is beautiful and it was fun to see a shrine in the ocean.  There were a lot of tourists around, but there were still plenty of worshippers.  We enjoyed walking through it.

Grilled Oysters

One of the more common foods in Miyajima are oysters.  We saw oyster rafts in the ocean while on the ferry, and wanted to try one of Miyajima's grilled oysters.

You could squeeze lemon juice or a spicy sauce on them before digging in.

So good!  So good!!  Too bad they weren't very cheap, we would have had them for lunch!

Playing with Deer and Senjokaku

 The very first thing we did upon arrival was to find some of the island's deer.  It didn't take us long to find some.  It seemed as if they were waiting for us.

The deer on the island are wild, but are very used to people and will tolerate being touched and petted.

I wondered how the deer would react to a swarm of children....but they didn't seem to care.

It was so fun to just walk right up to a deer and pet it!

 

An adult and a baby.  They don't get very big.

We slowly made our way toward Senjokaku, all the while there were deer everywhere and we kept getting distracted by them!

The deer kept walking away while we had the timer set on the camera, so we had a hard time getting a family picture with a deer in it.  This is the only one we were able to get!

Getting closer to the red torii in the water.

The view of Hiroshima from Miyajima beach.  The low clouds in the air made visibility kind of hard.

We saw these samurai armor on the sidewalk.  For quite a lot of money, you could rent a costume and walk around the island and live out your dream of being a samurai warrior.

The entrance into the tourist shops.

The torii gate on land.

One of the things we were looking forward to was being able to come here on Friday night and walk along this coast while these lanterns were lit up.  Because we didn't make it to the ferry on time, we had to look at these lanterns from across the bay while Raymond and the boys looked for hotel rooms.  It wasn't the same as if we had been able to be here.

The deer attacked Kirstin and the bag on the stroller that contained her bottle and the kids' snacks.  They were fast and got inside the bag quickly!  We had to watch them closely, but they didn't get anything.  Kirstin thought the deer were fun and didn't get scared when they stuck their head close to her face.

All Shinto shrines have a torii gate through which the gods housed within are to be approached, but the gate to Itsukushima is something special! The huge vermillion gate "floating" on the water is an iconic image that has been front and center of many pictures of Japan and was chosen by a 15th century scholar as one of the "three great scenic views of Japan".  At low tide--around 3:30 p.m.--, one can go out and walk around the infamous gate.  We had hoped to be able to be here at low tide, but unfortunately, because of our changed plans yesterday, we missed being able to touch it.

In the distance, we could see Itsukushima Shrine.

We made our way over to Senjokaku, still finding deer everywhere we looked.

Right next to Senjokaku, there is a five-storied pagoda.

The kids climbing the stairs up.....

 Senjokaku, the one thousand mat pavillion, stands in stark contrast to the brightly colored pagoda standing right next to it. Senjokaku was commissioned in the 1580s by the second of Japan's great unifying warlords, Hideyoshi Toyotomi. The warlord died before the building was completed and it remains unfinished and unpainted to this day.  It would have been interesting to go inside and see the huge beams that make up the building, but we had to pay to get in and we are very burned out of paying for every little thing we want to see after being in Kyoto for six days.  Instead, we walked around it.

 

 

The mountains here are covered with forest and are quite pretty, and the clouds made the island seem more mysterious. 

There was a pagoda across the canyon.  It was small and cute.

 

On to Itsukushima Shrine!