Hiroshima & Miyajima

One of the things I've been most looking forward to was visiting Hiroshima, where we would be able to see Itsukushima Shrine. This shrine is built like a pier on the beach, so that you can approach on foot during low tide, and during high tide it appears to float. It's one of the three iconic views of Japan (日本三景) and has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for 20 years. Oh, it also has a Noh stage that's nearly 500 years old.

Most of this post will probably just be pictures.

Itsukushima-Jinja

Wearing my themed torii-gate jacket (read: rain jacket). This is on the ferry, about half way to the dropoff.

As we approached Itsukushima (commonly known as Miyajima) it became clear just how many people were near the gate, and just how big the gate was. Next time we'll have to come, or wait for, high tide to fully come in.

This guy in full Samurai costume was just hanging out on the wall.
When we came back a couple hours later, he was still there. We saw a few kids run crying from him.

The deer are cute, but they have sad lives. The city near Itsukushima Shrine imported them from the mainland to promote tourism, letting tourists feed them. After reproducing rapidly and overrunning the town, the town took down all the feed dispensers and discouraged tourists from feeding them. Now, they've been trained to beg for food from tourists, who won't feed them, and a lot of them probably don't know how to take care of themselves in the wild. So they sit in the park by the town, hanging out, and waiting for someone to feed them.

Very used to human contact, you could pet them like dogs.

Selfie on the beach!

Called Kagami-no-Ike (Mirror Pond), this pond is mentioned in a bunch of traditional Japanese poetry. When I get back to the states, I will look in my notes from school to see if I ever translated any of them—right now I can't remember any.

These two beautiful people standing on a ledge near the beach.

This pagoda is called Gojunoto and is a very famous building in Japan. It was originally constructed in 1407.

I remember seeing pictures of this stage in textbooks, during my schooling. It was really amazing to see it, and all of the elements of an authentic Noh stage, in real life.

Trained Monkey

Just for fun, let's finish off with this. Something you definitely won't see in the US.

Part way through the performance, the monkey stopped doing any tricks, and ignored the handler. According to the handler, it was because he wanted donations. People gave some money and then the monkey continued his performance.