Day 3; a super short post on Akiyoshidai and Akiyoshido

Day 3 was rather short and rushed; the result is this short post:

First we went to Akiyoshidai.  It would have been really cool to see it in the summer when it's green instead of brown.  For as far as the eye can see, it looks like a plain littered with boulders.  It really made me think of the Cyclops and ancient Greek mythology for some reason. 

This was the view from the hotel in the morning:

And on our way I spotted this cool gate from the bus.  The gate is on the edge of some woods...seemingly leading to mystical forest (perhaps where Totoro lives?)

I took only 2 pictures of Akiyoshidai unfortunately, because I spent a lot of time running around between the boulders :D

Next we went underneath these plains to the Akiyoshido.  To save you from looking at my pics that all look the same (brown and full of dirt / a rock or two) here are 3 pictures that sum up the cave:

At the exit there was a beautiful wooded area where the clean water from the cave flowed into a stream full of little fish:

After a short walk, we came upon some shops.  A man was selling insects that he made from grass:

Well this short post concludes my pictures worth posting of our 3 day journey south west from Kobe.  I will cut up some videos soon and post them too! 

Rest of Day 2; A short post on Iwakuni

So after a nice morning in Miyajima, we head out for 岩国　（いわくに）　Iwakuni.  It's a nice little place with many years of Samurai history.  Probably what is most known about Iwakuni is the famous 5-arch bridge that was originally built (and rebuilt, and rebuilt, and rerererebuilt [it kept collapsing due to river floods]) without any nails at all; just interlocking wood.

We were supposed to also go up the mountain to an old samurai castle, but I was tired and ate ice cream instead  :[  SORRY


Here the few pics that I took of Iwakuni and the bridge:

You may have noticed that there is metal and nails now.  Well the bridge is a tourist attraction and get's much more traffic than originally intended so it was reinforced some years ago.  But it still looks cool!

The river has a weird man-made stone bed that directs water:

Next we went up the mountain to get to the samurai castle, but it was too late so I took some pics of the park around the castle:

My friend Nan's awesome shirt:

Sorry that's all I have of Iwakuni.  It was in the afternoon and I was pretty tired :[

Next post will be about our final day.  We were rushed through Akiyoshido caves and got to take a few pictures of the Akiyoshidai rocky plains.  I will post them soon.  I apologize in advance that the amount of pictures does not compare to Miyajima.

Hope that you enjoyed these.

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!