Nagoya to Miyajima

I wanted to write a short Haiku about the glory of summer in Japan, more specifically the glory of MY LAST SUMMER IN JAPAN, but alas words and talent fail me (now there`s a first haha). I have finally entered the homestretch of this deranged experiment. The marvels of the spring season have come and gone, as have the excitement of having visitors and the last of my paid holidays. This leaves me with the prospect of a steaming hot summer in Nagoya, aptly called the `armpit of Japan` by those lucky enough not to actually live here. Although this sounds hopelessly depressing it is made a little better by the thought of a long holiday and some much needed adventure coming in September.

The start of May was very exciting as the parental units arrived on the 8th and we embarked on a whirlwind tour of the lower half of Japan. We began our trip in Nagasaki, a city made famous by the A-Bomb but kept that way by a many memorial areas and some pretty cool temples. The city itself was really interesting and the people were nice in the way small city people usually are, very smiley and helpful. We visited many temples, some with Chinese influences, which were really beautiful and colourful. We also visited the A-Bomb museum, housed in Urakami, the area of the city that was thoroughly wiped out by the bomb. The museum was depressing, with displays outlining the damage to property and humans... Quite grisly.

After bidding Nagasaki a fond farewell we headed for a small island in the inland sea, near Hiroshima called Miyajima. This island is famous for the giant red shrine gate, or tori, that stands at the entrance of the main bay. The tori rests on the sea floor and is held up by nothing but its own weight, as may an excited Japanese tourist was happy to tell us. This means that when the tide is in it appears to be floating. It is really beautiful, especially with large green mountains rising from behind it. The town of Miyajima was a typical tourist trap, overrun by tourists on day trips from far-off places. We decided to stay on the island overnight and were rewarded with beautiful sunset views of the tori without the million tourists. The island is home to a number of impressive shrines, temples and pagodas. We visited a temple called Daishoin on the first day and spent about an hour walking around the beautiful grounds. In fact, we all enjoyed our time there so much we decided to stay an extra night!

On the second day we hiked to the top of Mt.Misen. Although the mountain itself wasn`t that tall it was quite a good hike up, everyone except for my super-fit mom was hurting by the time we reached the top. From the top we had a 360 degree view of the island and the surrounding inland sea, all shrouded in mist. While on the mountain we were also able to see some `wildlife` in the form of tame deer and some birds. All the tourist literature said that we should see monkeys... There were no monkeys, only copious signs outlining the do`s and dont`s of monkey viewing. According to the signs one should not look a monkey in the eye or show it anything shiny. Most importantly, one should not feed the monkeys. One poster outlined this point very well using a cartoon of a monkey with what appeared to be a weight problem and bad gas, the caption read `do not feed the monkey. We don`t want to be this kind of monkey`. We all had a good chuckle at the bad English and then made our way back to the hotel.


STAY TUNED FOR MT. KOYA, KYOTO AND TOKYO... same bat time, same bat channel!