Miyajima

April 8, 2015

Itsukushima is an island in the western part of the Inland Sea of Japan, located in the northwest of Hiroshima Bay. It is popularly known as Miyajima, which in Japanese means the Shrine Island. Wikipedia. 

We took a ferry to the island.

This island has wild deer. They roam around and sometimes bother tourists so you need to be careful with your bags. I decided to take off my jacket while we were looking around. Now, you need to know that everyone had a backpack with their stuff - except for me. My sweet husband was carrying all my stuff in his backpack, along with his stuff. I was carrying the bag with some food for dinner and breakfast. Everything on the island closes down at 6:00 when the ferries return the last tourists to the mainland. We were staying on the island so we needed food and our stuff. So, I was taking off my coat and packing it into a little bag I was carrying. Elly is saying something about a deer, yeah, yeah, ok. All of a sudden, I get head butted in the butt. The deer wants the food! Yikes...squeal...followed by full out laughing from my family! When they finally calmed down, Elly reports to the group that I have deer fur on my butt, which starts the group laughing again. Really, I don't know what they would do without me!

This little guy was spotted the next day. They are sure he was looking for me. More laughs and giggles.

We found the house Elly had rented for us. It was Japanese style, which meant we slept on mats again. Front entry - take off your shoes and leave them at the door.

A nice, clean kitchen area. 

A Japanese recliner...?

Each room had its own decorations. 

Then we went out exploring.

Low tide. 

1. 

   Setting a sea slug free, he was drying out. They are also called sea cucumbers. 

   

   
   

   

   Shops

   

   At 6:00 p.m. everything closed. It was like we were on the island by ourselves. Gary and I had spotted a little restaurant/bar on the beach by our house earlier, so we decided to see if it was open. It was, so we went in. They had a fire in the fireplace and it looked very nice. We were just going to get a beer but we decided we should order food too. We were the only ones there and I am not so sure they didn't just stay open for us. We ordered some appetizers and they were delicious! We had edamame, fried squash, fried octopus, and baked unagi, which they told me was eel AFTER I tried some and liked it. It was fun just sitting and relaxing. We had done a lot of walking. 

   

   

   Then we went for a quick beer run, at a vending machine we had seen nearby.

   

   

   While walking through this desserted town Gary and I saw some kind of critter on the road. It stopped and looked at us, as we stopped and looked at it. It decided to turn and go up some steep steps into the mountains. Kind of reminded me of the time we were walking in Minnesota and saw a bear...we all know how that ended!

   
   

   Note: Gary looked it up...the critter we saw was a tanuki or raccoon dog. 

   
   

   We all went back to the cabin and Chris taught us how to play Canasta. It was a fun evening! Jim, I am almost as good at Canasta as I am at Spades. Maybe we can be partners. 

   
   

   The next morning we had to check out by 10:00. It seems that all check outs are 10:00 or 11:00. 

   Pufferfish or blowfish. 

   

   A man threw out the net. 

   

   Pulled it in. 

   

   And put them in a bucket. 

   

   We found out they were for the aquarium on the island. We don't know if they were for a display or as fish food. 

   
   

   We walked around some more.  We found the fried oysters that we had missed the night before. They were Hiroshima oysters that were raised between Hiroshima and Miyajima. We saw where they were "farmed".

   

   
   

   

   Look! It's mom's friend, looking for more food.      Very funny. 

   

   Tide is in. 

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   Several stores had these machines that made the cake like cookies that a treat on the island. They are filled with different things. 

   

   Look mom. Maybe you should goggle translate that sign. Bwahahahaaa!      Very funny. 

   

   We took the ferry back, took a train to Hiroshima and toured Hiroshima Castle. 

   

   

   

   

   We walked some more and found a spot for lunch. Another little restaurant with great food. We were the only people there, but is was almost four in the afternoon. 

   
   

   Then we said good bye to Joe. He is heading off for a few days to see Kaku, a friend he met a few years ago in Omaha who lives back in Japan now. He has reservations to stay in a "Capsule" hotel. I am too claustrophic to do that! He will let us know about it when we see him in Tokyo on Sunday.  Note: He has Elly's phone with him so he can contact us if he needs us. We do know that he spent one night in the capsule and that you go into the capsules head first. We were wondering. 

   
   

   Miniature golf? Of course it made us think of our parents. 

   

   Walking back we saw a library. Marlene, maybe Holling needs a statue like this. 

   

   
   

   We got back to the base at 11:00 p.m.  We were tired and happy to be home. It was another great adventure!