I've arrived in Nagoya and went around to NUFS with my friend Mariko today. I have tons of pictures I haven't been able to post, but instead of going in chronological order, I'm just posting Miyajima, where I went on my eighth day here, because it was really cool.
I took a JR ferry (free with my pass!) to the island. It was quite cold, but a nice little trip anyway.
A view of Miyajima from the ferry.
Miyajima! I got there in the morning when it was still high tide, which made for a nice, impressive first view. I'll spare you the many, many similar pictures I have of it.
A view from the shrine associated with the torii.
Despite not being a fan of heights, I took the two cable cars going up the mountain. I hadn't realized that in the first one, it would just be me in a tiny car. Scary! But a nice view, still. The second leg of the cable car journey up was in a larger car with other passengers. I tried to convince myself that with the tall trees underneath the car, a cable break would not necessarily be fatal. As soon as I was comforted by that fact, however, the car rose to an obviously fatal height.
There's supposed to be a monkey park at the second station, but unforunately, (even though I hung around again for about an hour on my descent), I saw not a single monkey. I did get to see this great sign, though! I would not hope to be such a monkey, either.
From the second cable car station, I decided to go ahead and hike to the top of Mt. Misen, the highest point on the island (where there is a little observation station). My guidebook told me it would be a 20-minute hike, but I would describe it more as a 30-minute HIKE. I made it up by reminding myself how much easier the hike down would be (and it was).
I'm afraid the pictures I have just don't do the view justice. I may play with them a little to reduce the haze before I make a print or two. You can see Hiroshima!
And you can see the islands of the inland sea!
It's not important, but look at this. For a second I thought it was a snake, but I then realized it's some kind of worm. Like a GIANT earthworm. Photographed by my shoe for size reference. Head for the dirt, buddy!
Instead of paying for the white-knuckled cable car ride down, I went ahead and hiked the whole way down (since it's downhill, it only took about an hour). Even though I still didn't see any monkeys (I'm going to give them the benefit of a doubt about that and believe that the monkey claim isn't just a scheme for more visitors), there was some really beautiful scenery, and real, actual, *peace and quiet*! In Japan! Amazing!
When I got back down, the tide had gone out, and you could walk up to the torii (it's surprisingly not that muddy where the water had been). I also had some okonomiyaki with oysters, which are supposed to be a local speciality. My verdict: okonomiyaki = good, oysters = squishy.
Miyajima, by the way, has tame, free-roaming deer. I failed to get any pictures of deer walking along the sea shore (a strange sight, take my word for it), so you'll have to make due with this fake-old-timey sign. It's not actually particularly funny, and yet something about it tickles me... I'm not quite sure why...
posted by No_Fluff_Reviewer @ 4:20 AM
