Japan 2006 Day 2: The Floating Torii of Miyajima

The target for Day 2 - the famous floating Torii on the island of Miyajima, just a short distance off the coast of Hiroshima.


It's another day, another dumb horde of tourists for the island's native inhabitants. Apparently the Samurai used to worship deer for their swiftness and longevity, but this herd appeared more interested in sampling any brochures or tickets they could pilfer out of the pockets of hapless sightseers.


Here it is! Apparently one of the top three most photographed sites in Japan... The torii that is, not that cool dude in the foreground ;) A torii marks the enterance to a Shinto shrine - what makes this one so famous is that it is built off-shore, such that when the tide is up, it floats mystically off the shore of the island. Just to prove the boffins right, here's a collection of snaps to prove this is indeed one of the most photographed sights in all of Nippon.


Luck was with us, and the tide was in, saving us from the ignomity of photographing the famous site "floating" on a mud plane.


Here's the shrine for which the torii serves as an enterance marker.


Grrr... Arggg... Take that you fat cat! Rock refuses to let the ancient guardians intimidate him.


Err... yes... Snow monkeys are a common site plying the tree branches of Miyajima. This particular species is a common sight plying the ice cold Coka-Cola vending machines.


Victory! After an epic battle with the... well, crowds in the cable car queue, your mountaineers stand triumphant near the peak of Mount Misen, the pinnacle of Miyajima. Far below, the inland sea stretches out into the misty haze of a Japanese afternoon.


The photographer tries to set up that perfect anime hair blowing shot... But it kind of lacks effect without a ginormous katana in the hero's hand.


And it's hard to capture the hair blowing effect here when Jared spends so much time getting that perfect gelled look...


Having conquored Miyajima, it's time for the highlight of the day. Dinner! After meandering through the neon lit back alleys of Hiroshima's entertainment precinct, the weary travellers stumble upon a tiny yakitori joint... Deep fried prawns, crackling pork cutlets, buttery scallops, sizzling shitake mushrooms. Now that's a feast.


You can almost smell the grill, can't you?


Perhaps nothing sums up the pace of Japan like the blazing neon lights that spring to life as the sun sinks and the faceless black suits give way to a swirl of sake, karaoke and flashing chopsticks.

And with that we draw the curtain on Day 2. Oh, and BTW we totally screwed up our train booking and instead of making it to Kyoto like Rock's carefully laid out schedule dictated, we ended up having to crash at the colourfully named Eckimae Green Hotel, a rather sordid shoebox opposite the train station, where 300 yen buys you 30 minutes of the uhm... pink channel...