Saturday, March 20 - Miyajima and Iwakuni

I visited both Miyajima Island and Iwakuni City with my parents this past February, but as expected, upon going with a different group of people I had completely different yet still very fun adventures.

At Miyajima the tide was low, so the water was not lapping against the shrine pillars like it was the last time I went. Since there was no festival on Saturday (there was a festival going on last time I went), there were no special prayer ceremonies in Itsukushima Shrine (the shrine on Miyajima Island) conducted by the priests working there. I also visited this temple called Daishoin (I visited this temple with my parents as well). Due to the festival going on the last time I was there, the temple was incredibly crowded and noisy. But on Saturday it was serene save for the occasional pounding of drums heard from within a pagoda situated on the temple grounds.

After lighting a candle at Daishoin Temple, I decided to try hiking up Mount Misen, the main mountain on Miyajima Island. I had long since lost sight of my foreign exchange student friends, so I went climbing alone, but engaged in several all-Japanese conversations with fellow hikers, including a conversation with a foreign exchange student from Western Michigan University. I ran out of water and time halfway up the mountain, so I turned around and came down, but the view was beautiful despite the haze, and I certainly got my heart rate up by climbing all those stairs.

In the afternoon everyone was exhausted from walking all over Miyajima Island, but we were scheduled to visit Iwakuni City, so we all did a bit of walking there, as well. In addition to seeing the famous Kintaikyou bridge, the former samurai residences, the water fountain, and riding up the cable car like I did last time, my friends and I found some hedges that were in a kind of maze formation. Of course we wanted to play in the hedge maze, and we got in a few lively rounds of Pacman before heading on to Tokuyama City to spend the night.