Miyajima

The second to last stop we had on our trip was Miyajima. We had to take a ferry to get over. On the way, we were able to see the 'floating gate' of the Itsukushiku shrine. We made a point to come over when it was high tide, cause otherwise we were warned the 'floating gate' looked like it was not so much floating as standing in mud...which is because quite literally, at low tide, that is what it would be doing. However if you did come at low tide, you had the option to actually walk out and walk through the gate, which supposedly would give you luck...or enlighten you. Being that pretty much everything in Japan that we did was supposed to give us luck or enlighten us, I felt pretty stocked up on luck and enlightenment and figured I'd rather get good pictures of it.



When we arrived at Miyajima, to my pleasant surprise, we discovered there were more wild deer on this island. The first guy we saw is in these pictures below. I found him entranced at something and couldn't get him to turn or move from the side of the building to take any decent pictures. As you can see in the picture, I tried to identify what had the little guy so entranced.




It was a reflection of himself! I'd call him narcissistic but if I was that cute, I'd probably stare at myself all day too.

We walked around the area, taking pictures, looking at the shrine and, of course, me being creepy chasing the deer all around. There was one deer that I spent quite some time petting and when I decided to get up and move on, I tried to give it a kiss on the head, which it promptly rejecting by jerking its head away.

"I don't think he liked that." I told Lindsey.

"Well, duh, Emily." She retorted. "It's a wild animal...and it doesn't speak English!"

"...It's a Japanese deer? That's the reason the deer doesn't want a kiss? Language barrier?"

We continued to explore the general area in Miyajima before seeing this sign in our path.



Probably would have been more effective if it had been posted where I got off the Ferry...before I turned the entire island into my own personal petting zoo.

At this point, we were in the last days of our trip. It was sad to know soon we'd be forced back to reality, but as often happens when you are traveling around a lot in a foreign country, we were tired and looking forward to sleeping in our own beds. I was particularly looking forward to not feeling like every trip to the bathroom was a game of Russian roulette, wondering if there would be a real toilet there or just a hole in the ground.

We headed back to our hostel, packed our things and prepared for our last day in Japan that we would spend in Himeiji.