Today started off grey and rainy, so I countered the weather with a breakfast of strawberry pancakes and a matcha latte from a coffee shop across the street from my hotel.
Then it was off to the train station to begin the long journey to the island of Miyajima. I had to take the bullet train down to Hiroshima, and from there take a train to the town of Miyajimaguchi, and from there, I took a ferry over to the island; the whole trip was about three hours long.
Ever since my last trip, I've remembered Miyajima as a quiet, mysterious, ancient place that's highly connected with nature, and my first sight of the mist-shrouded islands brought back memories of my last encounter with Miyajami, when it also happened to be an overcast, cool day with just a hint of rain.
Soon enough, we arrived at the port at Miyajima, and I set foot once more in one of my favorite places in the world. The place still had the overall aura of tranquility and antiquity that I'd remembered, and it wasn't long before the friendly local deer made their appearance.
I strolled through the somewhat narrow streets lined with gift shops and restaurants, the scents of all kinds of delicious foods mixing with the refreshing ocean breeze.
By now it was well past noon, so I decided to get some food. My highest priority was one of the steamed beef buns that I remembered fondly from my last trip, and it was just as good as I'd recalled. Then, I stopped in a restaurant for some okonomiyaki, which is something of a Japanese omelette/pancake hybrid made with eggs, cabbage, pork, and noodles, and covered in a sweet soy sauce.
I also sampled a momiji manju, which is a Japanese maple leaf-shaped caked filled with sweet bean paste, and is apparently the signature specialty of Miyajima...it was delicious!
When I was done with food, I made my way over toward Itsukushima, the famous shrine at the heart of the island village. The brilliant vermilion torii gate came quickly into view, and appeared to be floating on the water; last time, we'd been at Itsukushima at low tide, so we'd missed the illusion of the gate "floating" on the ocean. This time, though, I happened to be there right at high tide.
The shrine itself is spectacular, with the striking red-orange paint standing out against the backdrop of the dark green of the wooded mountains, the dark brown wood of the nearby buildings, and the grey of the clouds above.
After I made my way through the shrine, I headed out into the village to see whatever I might see just wandering around without any real destination in mind. I walked along the shore for a while, enjoying the ocean air, before turning back inland.
A short ways into the village, I came across a small Buddhist and Shinto temple called Daiganji Temple, which I'd never seen before.
From there, I took a brief tour of the "Treasure Hall," which housed some ancient artifacts important to the history of Itsukushima (no photos allowed), before I noticed signs for another temple and a mountain trail further into the village.
I wandered along a winding path that left the village behind and took me into a forested area, eventually leading to a bridge and staircase that was the entrance to Daishoin Temple.
The ocean air was replaced with the rich scents of evergreen, moss, and damp earth, adding to the ancient feeling of the whole place, and the noise and bustle of the village's shopping streets and the crowds at Itsukushima were far behind.
The temple was a fascinating blend of ancient and modern; there were lots of obviously old statues and structures, but with modern touches here and there, like the garden of little Buddha statues with knitted hats that I stumble upon.
Passing by the whimsical statues, I stopped to ring a large gong for good fortune on the way into the main temple grounds.
The temple was incredible; I couldn't believe I'd never heard or read anything about it anywhere...I'm glad I just randomly happened upon it. There were all kinds of interesting details, like rooms with hundreds of small wooden statues, or funny little stone statues, and, inexplicably, cans of pineapple in many of the small shrines??
By far my favorite part of the whole place was a temple at the top of the grounds with a room filled with countless statues and lit by hundreds of lanterns on the ceiling; it was totally breathtaking and unlike anything I've ever seen before.
On the way back toward the entrance, I stopped at a shrine that had a staircase leading down below the structure, so naturally I went in.
At the bottom of the stairs, I walked through a heavy black curtain and expected to find some crazy new shrine room, but was instead plunged into total, unyielding darkness. It turns out it was some kind of underground, pitch-black labyrinth. There was no sound and absolutely no light, and as I guided myself along with my hand against the wall, it twisted and turned, so there was no sense of direction, either. I don't know what it was supposed to be or represent, but as with much of Daishoin Temple, it was totally unexpected. And a bit terrifying.
I eventually emerged from the shadows and headed back down toward the bottom of the stairs at the temple's entrance, where another path led to a hiking trail up to the top of the nearby Mount Misen. Relishing the thought of getting to spend a bit of time in the deep forest on this magical island, I headed up a steep mountain trail for the second time in two days.
A short way up the trail, I encountered a spectacular view of a waterfall that crashed into a ravine, with a Shinto shrine off to the side nearby.
I hiked up the stone stairs for quite a ways, reveling in the humbling solitude of the mountain forest and undeterred by a sign warning about poisonous snakes. The whole hike would've taken 3 hours, though, so eventually I decided to turn back. Next time, Mt. Misen, next time.
After about a half hour of walking, I was back on the shopping streets of Miyajima. There, I stopped into a shop dedicated mostly to a huge variety of soy sauces, but it also had pickles and spices. I found some of the sansho pepper I'd really enjoyed from the other day and bought a small bottle of it.
Then I got a deep-fried, custard-filled momiji manju before making my way to Senjogaku, a temple and pagoda up a short hill nearby.
After that, I looped back around past Itsukushima one more time, and noticed that the tide had gone all the way down, so I walked out onto the beach to get a close look at the torii.
While standing on the beach I saw what looked like a mass of unusual shells or stones dotting the sand. Looking more closely, I saw that they were actually 1 yen coins...thousands of them covering the beach!
By then, it was getting late and I had a long return trip ahead of me, so I reluctantly accepted that it was time to head back. I walked back up to the main street and to the docks, taking a last look at the torii, the shops, and the deer.
Several hours later, I was finally back at Teramachi, pretty spent from a full day of adventuring on Miyajima, which still holds its spot as one of my all-time favorite places on earth (Fushimi Inari Taisha is giving it some serious competition, though). It was already past 9pm, so I hastily dropped off my backpack and headed out to try to find a good spot for my last dinner in Kyoto. I settled on a Japanese steak restaurant, where I had an exceptionally delicious steak with grilled vegetables.
It's been a long day and it's super late now, but luckily I don't have to be up early tomorrow. Tomorrow I head back to Tokyo for, incredibly, my last full day in Japan. I don't really have any plan for tomorrow, but whatever happens, you'll read about it here!
After breakfast, I set off to explore the shopping area one final time, and while most of the shops were still closed, I came across a side street called Nakamise, which was set up like a farmers market and featured everything from fresh fish and vegetables to grilled food on skewers and all kinds of tea.
It was time to say goodbye to Kyoto, though, so I made my way to the train station and boarded a shinkansen to head off to Tokyo. This time, I was fortunate to get a window seat, and got to see a good deal of the Japanese countryside.
I even got to see Mount Fuji! Albeit from far away and mostly shrouded by clouds.
After about three hours, I arrived in Tokyo once more. I got to my hotel in short order, located in Gotanda, but check-in wasn't for another 45 minutes so I left my luggage and wandered around for a bit. I stayed in the neighborhood, as anything I wanted to see was at least a half hour away, but I managed to find a good ramen shop on a side street and had a late lunch of pork ramen.
I eventually headed back to the hotel for 3:00pm and unpacked a bit, trying to decide what to do with my remaining time in Japan. It certainly was starting to feel like I was in the epilogue or post-credits scene of my trip, as there wasn't much time left to do stuff and travel fatigue was finally settling in. I eventually decided to check out the Imperial Palace, so I hopped on the subway and took a half-hour trip out to the heart of Tokyo.
The Imperial Palace was pretty cool, even though visitors aren't allowed inside (or even very close) as the Emperor still resides there (though apparently he will abdicate at the end of April, marking the end of the Hisei Period and starting off a ton of festivals leading up to the reign of a new Emperor later this year).*
*thanks, Wikipedia.
The palace grounds were immaculately-kept and beautiful, surrounded by an impressive moat.
From there, I decided to make my next destination Toyokawa Inari Tokyo Betsuin, a shrine I'd read about while planning my trip that sounded worth a visit. As I walked around the exterior of the palace grounds and into the heart of the city, I felt like I must have put in the wrong address, and I was surrounded by skyscrapers and there couldn't possibly be a shrine nearby. Eventually, though, I turned a corner, and there it was. For reference, here's the shrine's entrance:
And here was what was just across the street:
The shrine was another Inari-dedicated shrine, and much like Fushimi Inari Taisha, was filled with fox statues.
It was an incredible little place, being just this little sanctuary of an ancient tradition of nature worship surrounded by tall, modern buildings and traffic in the heart of the largest city on the planet.
Feeling very grateful to have seen that shrine, and having gotten my adventurous spirit back, I decided to head over to Akihabara once more as the sun was setting and I'd pretty much seen all the outdoorsy or temple-y stuff on my list. After a quick subway ride, I was once more in the heart of the Electric Town, where I spent more time than I care to admit looking at the vast array of geek stuff, though just barely managing not to buy anything. I even saw a group of people dressed as Super Mario characters cruise down the main street in go-karts, though I was too slow on the camera draw to take a picture as they raced by.
As it was pretty late, I decided to head over to Ueno to try to find a good sushi place for dinner. It didn't take long to find one as the train station let out into a vast restaurant district. I quickly came upon a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, where I ate my fill of delicious sushi and nigiri, finally completing my list of eating the essential Japanese foods on my trip.
Full and tired, it was time for me to head back to my hotel for my last night in Japan. I got back a bit after 9:00pm, ready to call it a night, with a fantastic view of the city from my hotel room window.
Thus concludes my second trip to Japan! Tomorrow morning I head off to the airport, and thanks to time zone technicalities, I'll be back home two hours after I leave. Thanks again to anyone who's reading this blog; I hope it's been an entertaining read and I hope you get to visit and experience Japan for yourself someday. As with my last trip, I will be uploading all 2000+ photos from this trip to Facebook once I'm back home.
Well, that's all for this journey. It's been an incredible adventure, and I can't believe I actually made it through whole thing. On to the next!
