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.
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| 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...
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| Usagi-San, the anarchist, on the way to the rope way! |
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| This scenic view was enjoyed by some. |
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| 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.
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| Four guys, one stair |
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| 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.
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| View towards the Torii and the Itsukushima shrine |
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| View to the first stop, from the observation deck |
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| 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.
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| The guessing game: "Guess the shape of Kuma-San's backpack |
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| Some are perhaps more enthusiastic than others? |
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| 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
