Our Travels In Japan (and other places): Miyajima

I started the morning with a really nice run through Hiroshima. There are a lot of parks and underpasses that make the run easier to do, and a lot of things to see along the way. From Hiroshima Station, I ran across the river and down to Hiroshima Castle, past the Dome, and around the Peace Park. As I've said earlier, when you are at a tourist site at 5:30am, there are no tourists, so it was really nice to get good, unobstructed views of some of these.

After the run, Sumi and I hopped a train to Miyajimaguchi Station where we took the ferry over to Miyajima, one of our favorite places to visit in all of Japan. This is our 4th or 5th time here to visit the "Floating" O-torii (big gate) and climb Mt Seto, the tallest peak on Miyajima. The various trails that lead up the mountain are of medium difficulty, so it's a good workout, and beautiful forest along the way. At the top, you can get a great view of the island chains in the Inland Seto Sea (Setosaikai).

High tide was at its peak when we came in

In about 5 hours, people will be walking up to the gate at low tide

There are several shrines and temples on the island

Our climb up was quite a workout. Along the way we saw various small impromptu shrines in the rocks, a small flowing stream that runs down most of the mountainside, and some really nice views on a clear sunny day.

On our way up, we heard monks chanting from one of the temples in the mountains, which was pretty cool. Then, a few decided they needed to practice their wind instruments. We think they were something like this

In any case, after hearing them, which anyone hiking on that side of the mountain most certainly could, we understood why they were practicing. It was....well, take a listen for yourself:

It took about 4.5 hours to make the trip up the mountain and back down, at which point we were a hot mess. A stop for some ice cream and shade, then back to the ferry for the trip back to the hotel. We're trying out the hotel's all-in-one washer and dryer. Basically, you put your laundry in and hit go. It adds detergent, washes, then dries your clothes all in the same machine.