Floating Shrines, Mountain Tops and Oyster soup.

We were bracing the kids for a Japanese breakfast this morning, when we were greeted by Western-style. Joshie ploughed into his toast and jam, Lily and Hamish accumulating moustaches from their hot chocolate. Because any good Western-style breakfast wouldn't be complete without a bowl of Miso soup, we had some of that too (with bonus oysters - a local speciality). One of the resident deer decided to take a gander at us through the window while we ate.

By the time we got ready for the day, and actually step foot outside - the hordes of day-trippers had returned.

View from one of our windows.

Momijiso Ryokan

Navigating through the crowds of people climbing up the hill, we made our way down - as an amateurish-looking website assured us that high tide would be at 9:50 am. We passed some more deer on the way, as well as some ludicrously red maples.

Baby deer -
looking put out we don't have anything it can munch on.

Hypothermia waiting to happen.

Turns out Amateur Web Person was right - both the Torii and Temple itself were partially submerged by the tidal peak. The Shrine had water lapping over its walk-ways, and was not open to the public until the waters receded a little (some of the monks clearing the water off the entrance-way with brooms).

Water frontage, over-zealousness.

Less tourists and camera-crews both.

Icy sea-breeze accounting for chattering teeth a rosy noses.

A little more sensibly placed from a rising-damp point of view, a five-tiered Pagoda overlooked both the Torii and the Temple.

Having had our fill of both the Temple grounds and the stiff onshore breeze, we wandered back up the hill, past Momijiso and to the bottom station of the Rope-way to Mt Misen.

The cars on this rope-way seemed tiny - a maximum occupancy number set at between 6-8 (the upper figure clearly not taking larger western builds in mind). The cable stretched on for what seemed to be an age, before finally reaching the transfer station (saving us an hour or two of mountain climbing in the process). We then moved onto a larger car - with a sardine-like maximum occupancy of 30 people. The conductor appeared to be a fan of canned seafood. Nose to glass - we made our way to the top station of Mt Misen.

That is one looong expanse of cable.
Plus - Rainbows!

Beyond that water (Sea of Japan) lies Hiroshima

We took a peek at the viewpoint just up from the Rope-way station. An antlered deer decided to have a bit of a nibble on a lady's bag - and was reluctant to let go. Lily decided to ignite a flame meant for new couples to demonstrate their everlasting fondness for each other. Symbolising her high regard for herself perhaps.

It dawned on us that the actual Mt Misen observation tower was on another (and quite sensibly taller) mountain peak a mere 1 kilometre away. Turns out that kilometre was essentially a series of stone steps and overly-optimistic dirt gradients. We saw signs saying 'Observation tower - 0.3km' on at least three occasions. As we neared our goal, we started passing shrines and holy structures including Reikado Hall. The Hall houses a flame said to have been lit by Kobo Daishi - founding member of one of the sects of Buddhism in Japan - and is still burning (over a thousand years later). The flame from the Hall was used to light the Flame of Peace in Hiroshima's Peace Park.

Kobo Daishi's flame.

Small shrine along the mountain path.

As you near the summit of Mt Misen, the path takes you under a large boulder, known as Duck-under Rock by residents of the Island (and known as Makka Pakka's house by Joshie). The winds were fierce at the summit, but the views were amazing, a lovely back-drop to the clearly ancient statuettes and shrines found here and there. 

There was also a vending machine. I kid you not - these things are everywhere.

The observation deck was a concrete and steel affair - both of which materials had seen better days. Despite the cracks and rust - the thing held together as we briefly popped up for completion's sake (and clearly we had not had sufficient blasts of icy winds to the face).

.

Visitors going a little overboard with their pebble-leavings.

On top of the reasonably-archaic Observation Tower.

The wind started picking up still further, and we could hear some urgent sounding messages coming over the PA from the top cable station. Arriving there with a growing sense of unease, we were waved on to what appeared to be one of the final Rope-way descents running. There was noone in any of the cars coming back up. Once in the teeny car for the lengthy leg of the journey down the mountain - we clearly felt the impact of the winds - with the car rocking a little as we descended (funny how you notice small movements more when suspended far above the tree-line).

It turns out we timed our ascent fairly well - as there would be no more trips up that afternoon.

We wandered down to the town again, lunching at some of the street stalls. We all picked up a beef steamed bun - our enjoyment of said buns appearing to amuse passers-by. There was a guy selling various meat/garnish combinations on sticks, so we thought we'd give that a go too. It turns out all of the options were coating around a crab-meat core. Still - they were both warm and greasy - and so sufficed. Just to complete our lunch of dubious dietary merit - we picked up some Maple Leaf Cakes to go. Miyajima appears to have iconic objects galore - what with the Floating Torii, the Rice Server, the Deer and the Maple Cakes - there is not a square foot of the island that doesn't have the imagery of at least one of these four things on it.

After thawing out in our rooms, we had another lovely meal (including an oyster and rice soup). The little old lady was at it again, standing over any of us who left more than crumbs of a particular dish. Jen bravely hid her pickled vegetables to avoid this scrutiny.

Tomorrow sees us head to Fukuoka - and into a bona fide Hotel. It is very much feeling like the home-stretch now, and we are wondering what walking from late autumn to late spring will feel like.