Day 2, Miyajima (Itsukushima)

This post is much happier than the last.

In the morning we went to 宮島　（みやじま）　Miyajima.  Miyajima is a small island south of Hiroshima that is pretty famous for the Itsukushima Shrine.  The weather started out a bit cold and overcast, but quickly became very sunny and warm :D

We left Hiroshima by ferry and rode for about 10 minutes to Miyajima.  There were many deer along the trail to the shrine and you could pet them.  If you had food, they would harass you which is actually a bit scary.  I just didn't feel comfortable with big deer stuffing their wet noses in my face.

What's cool about Itsukushima Shrine is that it interacts with the tide or the ocean!  I was there right before high-tide, which is when the water level reaches just under the shrine and the famous gate so that it looks like it is floating!  During low-tide all the water leaves and you can actually walk under the gate.  I wasn't there during low-tide so I could not go underneath the gate D:

Anyways here are some pics:

The mountains as we approach by ferry:

You can see the gate (Otorii)!

Next as we walked up to the shrine:

You could see the man made walkways underwater:

There were many deer but this one was posing for a picture:

Now some pictures from the shrine itself:

The awesome Miyajima Otorii (with the tide almost completely in):

When the tide goes down all the way, it looks like this (google pic since I wasn't there during low-tide):

After visiting the shrine, we went up to the mountains behind them!  It was a long way up by rope-way (cable-car).  There were some cool shops with masks and statues for sale, as well as a nice creek and pond alone the way:

From some of the shops:

On the rope-way:

And finally at the top!

Check out that little island off in the distance!  It looks like a giant turtle or something:

There were supposed to be monkeys around here, but I didn't see a single one :[

After that we went back down, on the ferry, on a bus, and went to 岩国　（いわくに）　Iwakuni.  Home of a famous bridge.  But this post is already so large.  I will post a rather small one after the weekend about my trip to Iwakuni.

I hope that you enjoyed these pictures!  Miyajima is so beautiful; I recommend you see it with your own eyes!