Miyajima part 7 - The dash for the Torii and the ride home

Dashing down again (2 minutes if sprint a little), and onto the beach at about  12:45, we realized that the tide was on the way back in. Walking with dry feet through the Torii was no longer possible, but we did get to go out and touch it! 

BARELY!

A bare piece of sand! Let's run!

Made it!

Made it! ALMOST dry!

Not much room now!

View from the Torii to the shrine

We made it, although I have no pictures of Kawaii-San - He had to jump both ways, but made it too!

After the Torii, we went to eat. But the only had traditional tables for seiza, but we're getting used to that now!

We weren't as brave 30 minutes later...

Luckily they had locally brewed beer that helped!

Coffee-San saw us, and came running to say goodbye!

A view from the ferry.

I must again recommend the JR-pass. Available only to foreigners, it saved us quite a bit of money on the trains, Shinkanzen and this ferry! We got ours through our travel agent, Japanspesialisten.

On the way back to the trainstation we came across a small pottery factory that sold hand made sake sets. It was fun seeing the production, and that made the price tag more acceptable :)

Making tea mugs

Waiting for the Shinkanzen, eating Ice cream!

Miyajima part 6 - Mt. Misen (And are they never getting off that island?)

SO, I'm guessing you're all tired of reading about Miyajima. But you know what? We're not tired of BEING on Miyajima, so you get one more blog post about this amazing place!

The tide difference in Miyajima is quite impressive. It allows for people to walk out in the bay, and through the Torii itself. The low tide time for when we were there was 12:34 in the afternoon, so we figured that we eat breakfast, and pop off to the observatory on Mount Misen first.

Just a simple Japanese breakfast, consisting of 719 different dishes! Oishii! =)

After breakfast, we went to find the cable car to take us up from sea level. How long of a walk from the hotel? Gee, I don't really know...

Some of us are not comfortable with heights. Some of us lost the fear of heights in the SkyTree, some prefer sitting perfectly still in the cable car. It's a long drop...

Usagi-San, the anarchist, on the way to the rope way!

This scenic view was enjoyed by some.

Kuma-San was nervous before the SECOND leg of the climb, but found strength in a new soda we never saw before. It was jelly soda!

 The trip up is divided in several stages. There is two rope ways going up first, to the first mountain. Then there is a 20-40 minute hike (depending on walk or run a little) to get up to the observatory.

The last trek is first down into a valley, and then up again.

Four guys, one stair

The detailed map

 Like on most treks, some people prefer strolling, some stressing, some somewhere in between. Kuma-San, Kawaii-San, Makiwara-San and Neko-San opted for the "Let's move it, we're behind schedule for the Torii"-style, and ran off.

View towards the Torii and the Itsukushima shrine

View to the first stop, from the observation deck

Tired guys on the top! Everyone made it, although at different times!

 After enjoying a brief stop at the top of the mountain, we headed back down, to make it before the tide came in.

A quick dash back to the station, were we had to wait a couple of minutes for the next cable car. On an interesting note, if you miss the last cable car for the night, you have to walk down. Alone. In the dark. Good luck.

The guessing game: "Guess the shape of Kuma-San's backpack

Some are perhaps more enthusiastic than others?

These girls were probably the most photographed that day, besides the Torii!

Stay tuned to find out if we made it to the Torii, and to see if we ever get off this island!!!

/Kristian

Miyajima part 5 - Torii and the School girls.

As already covered in this blog, we are popular in Japan :-P - Big, bulky and tall gaijin attract attention. And if said gaijin is willing to pose with school kids? In front of the most famous Torii in the world? Hilarity ensues!

We give you: School kids, and the gaijin!

These three started the show!

Makiwara-San takes over! METAL POSE!

Usagi-pose!

Aaaaaaaaaah!

I'm afraid we might be part of a sect now =P

Double punch!

Special Torii-pose, we were told!

Neko-San posed in a flexing stance with these girls. Apparently I'm stronger than them

Do-you-remember-me-San second from the left.

She climbed the sign to be as tall as Sensei!

We posed for probably twenty pictures more, but got no shots with our cameras. That's life, I guess =)

And also: I've never been bowed to so low by apologetic Japanese school teachers before. They seemed a bit embarrassed, but we very happy to pose :)

/Kristian

Miyajima part 4 - Coffee, sake and the Torii

A quick note on sake: Sake is delicious. Almost always. There is, however, one exception to this rule, and that is as follows:

If you find a vending machine that sells sake, and you decide that the 60yen pink sake cup served in a plastic cup with a twist off cap, you MIGHT have picked the wrong sake...

Kuma-San is in for a surprise. Pink, late night sake from vending machine is not recommended.

Small breakfast at the ryokan, and off to find coffee.

Japan has a lot of small coffee roasters, and on Miyajima there are plenty of small roasters and coffee shops, but we quickly got a favorite. During our two day/one night stay, we visited this place probably five times!

Delicious coffee!

As the merry band of six traveling with Neko-San have learned,  CHOCOLATE is an international language. The first time in this coffee shop, we were blown away by the service and the coffee, and after drinking our coffee, Neko-San produced some of his chocolate, and offered to the girls behind the counter. They were, as the rest of the Japanese who got chocolate, very happy!

After consuming the chocolate, we got a small present back, a cup of iced cherry tea. Most Oishii tea ever! We all ended up buying, and we bought them empty :-P

Coffee-San Sr. and Sensei

Coffee-San making BANANA LATTE for Makiwara-San

Coffee-San and Coffee-San Sr.

Sensei, Coffee-San and Kawaii-San

Time for the Torii! And school kids. So. Many. School kids.

Miyajima part 3 - Still no coffee?, no schoolgirls and dinner!

All dressed up in Yukata, we went for dinner. And what a meal it was. Apparently dinner was being set up for us in a private dining hall, and our friend Kojima-San did the serving.

A beautifully set table

Spot the smallest one ;)

I think we all felt quite Japanese. Notice also the bags on the floor, serving as handbags.

Sashimi

Hotpot. "Soup" served at the table, with Miyajima oysters.

More seafood

Huge, fresh oysters. Nom!

Pickles!

Desert. Jelly desert. Oishii jelly desert!

No, Kawaii-San isn't drunk. He just struggles with certain textures.

The meal was fantastic. Miyajima is famed for it's oysters, and we got plenty of that. A first for many of the 7 samurai, but a great experience :)

The ryokan is most definitely recommended if you're going to Miyajima - And you are, at least once, because Miyajima is so close to heaven on earth it's ludicrous.

/Kristian