Day 13 Miyajima

Once in every trip, there are those really perfect blissed-out days when life seems like it couldn't get any better. Days you wished could last forever and places so lovely you wish you need never leave.

The Miyajima day is one of these.


I think for me, the greatest impression I got of the day was one of colour. Nature's palette really outdid itself in Miyajima that day. Gorgeous splashes of blue, yellow and red. The blue of the sky and the Inland Sea and the various hues of red - the maples, the five-storey pagoda, the Itsukushima shrine, the O-torii and the canary-gold of the gingko.


We started out with great weather. Most of the clothes had dried out overnight despite the lemon dryer we encountered. We packed enough for an overnight stay and left the other day backpacks in a large locker in Hiroshima station. Note that if lockers in the station were all full, you could try the lockers in the 2nd floor of the department store adjoining Hiroshima station.


It was easy hopping on a commuter train for the half hour ride to Miyajimaguchi. Once out the train station, the ferry terminal is less than 5minutes away. The JR pass let us ride for free.

Beautiful sunny hazy day with the hills of Miyajima drawing closer and of the greatest sights in Japan - the Itsukushima shrine and the huge O-torii floating in the glittering sea drawing nearer. Once out of the ferry terminal, we were greeted by the ever-present deer. We were warned by the guidebooks that these deer eat anything, even maps and tickets, so we were careful not to let anything remotely edible tempt them. The kids were thrilled to stroke them and coo over them though the mother in me worried about bites and fleas. They were everywhere - in the streets, lying on the sidewalk, as common as street cats are in our neighbourhood, and probably tamer. It was an interesting experience to see deer right in an urban environment.

The game plan was to go to Auberge Watanabe (about a 20min walk inland) to store the bag and then walk around, but the day was so nice we just lingered and took our time to slowly walk round the seafront promenade, stop at the beach for the kids to pore over a rockpool (they found a tiny hermit crab!) and then climb down the steps in front of the Itsukushima shrine to get a closer look at the O-torii. The torii itself was standing in water but it was low tide enough for people to walk around for a closer look. The kids of course, were more engrossed in looking for shells, crabs, and other tidal life than at the huge orange gate barely 50m away.


Back up on the promenade, the smell of oysters on the grill set our mouths watering. We stopped at the open window of a restaurant which was selling the oysters. Juicy fresh oysters shucked but left to grill in their open shells. You know you've got something good when the kids' faces light up and they start clamouring for "More!" especially since oysters were never really on the top 10 list of the kids' favourites before.

En route to Auberge Watanabe, we had to pass a shallow valley with a rushing stream. The maples overhead, the gurgle of the water and the deer on the banks of the stream all contribute to a really pretty picture. Auberge Watanabe is located at the end of the street just before Daisho-in.

It is a small family-run inn with only three rooms and run more like a cosy B&B than a formal ryokan. There is a small restaurant on the ground floor. This place is a gem. We were very very lucky to find it, particularly since I had booked right at the last minute.

Initially, I had booked an entire house at the other end of Miyajima to accomodate all of us. But then as things happened, it did not make much sense to book such a big place when our group was shrinking. Also, I really wanted to get a good ryokan/inn experience on Miyajima. But by the time I cancelled my house reservation and looked for something else, practically all rooms on Miyajima were taken. It was the peak autumn leaf season after all. By chance, I stumbled on Auberge Watanabe and was able to get a room. I had not heard much about this place before booking it, but as my experience went, I was so glad I did.

From the tiny lane outside the inn, there was a trail leading into the wooded area of Momijidani-koen. It was not difficult to walk and unlike the main streets of Miyajima, not crowded at all. The maples of Momijidani lived up to their name and provided a fiery canopy above us. The path occasionally opened up to gorgeous views that stretched all the way to the shimmering sea in the distance. We could pick out the landmarks of Sengokaku hall, and the crimson spire of the pagoda next to it, below us the grey-tiled rooftops of Miyajima.

From Momijidani, we took the cable-car up Mt Misen. The ride was broken into two legs - one in a tiny cabin that held just our family, similar to what you see on the Sentosa cableway, and the other a larger cabin that would have offered fabulous views across the Inland Sea had we not been squashed in one corner cheek by jowl with about a hundred other people. It felt like rush hour on the Tokyo lines all over again.



Up on Mt Misen, we oohed and ahhed over the view of the many islets scattered like green pebbles in the misty blue horizon of the Inland Sea. This is a slice of the Seto Naikai national park. It was hazy and hot so much that you couldn't really tell where the sea ended and the sky began. One day though, I would like to explore those islets in that hazy distance. On a sidenote, KH said he had sailed through the Seto Naikai Park once many years ago and certain passages were so tight and close to shore that people on board could look right into islanders' living rooms.

On the peak of Misen, monkeys and deer co-habit peacefully. As on the streets of Miyajima, the deer were everywhere. Paths and trails led down to other important temples and shrines that dotted the flanks of the mountain, leading all the way back down to town. I would have wanted to walk this route, passing the little temple where a fire has burned for more than a thousand years, courtesy of Kobo Daishi. There's that name again. Fresh from Koyasan, I was curious to see this but bowed to heat and cranky kids and took the easier way down - cable-car and bus.


It was already late afternoon by the time we arrived at the heart of town. The light was lovely then and gave the raw, unfinished wooden textures of Sengokaku Hall, a burnished glow. This long building was built to hold Buddhist sutras in 1587, but it was never completed. The beams and pillars were left unvarnished, unpainted and the wooden floors have been worn smooth by time and countless visitors. I liked the simplicity and the pared down sparseness of the hall.




In contrast, the five-storey pagoda on the grounds adjacent to Sengokaku was showy in bold fire engine red. You could see it for miles!


By this time, most of the day-trippers had left and the seafront promenade we walked on earlier in the day was largely quiet and empty. This was the secret Miyajima that people wrote about when they urged visitors not to just visit the island in a day, but to stay on for the night. Once the day-trippers leave, its really just you and the deer and the kami in the shrines.





Unlike the early part of the day, the Itsukushima shrine was nearly empty. We purified ourselves as usual, and went in. I tried an omikuji but for once, got a really bad one which is really rare for me in Japan so I sent the bad luck on its way and tied the scrap of paper to the lines. By evening, the tide had also come in so we were treated to the sight of Itsukushima as it was intended - floating on dark green water and beds of seaweed.


It was almost dark by the time we returned to Auberge Watanabe, not far from the shrine. Trin had fallen asleep and was a dead weight shared by Gillian, KH and I as we trudged back to the inn.

For some reason, just as we were seated at the table for our check-in formalities, Trin woke up and immediately went into a full-scale tantrum. Chalk it down to fatigue and possibly hunger, but she screamed blue murder. She was loud and it was embarrassing. I excused myself from the inn and tried to pacify her outside the inn but she wasn't having any of it and continued wailing and screaming. The inn's owner, Yuki, was concerned enough to come outside with us, wondering if she could do anything. But from experience, I knew there was nothing anyone could really do - just let her finish what she started. It was hard though, to hear the shrill fire-alarm screams and I was torn between feeling helpless and murderous.


Thankfully, in what seemed like an eternity but was probably 20min or so, she stopped screaming and we were able to go back to the inn to complete checking in. We were given the largest of the three rooms - Shiraito, a 16-mat room. The room was lovely. As you walk into the room, the cypress bath is on left of the glass-enclosed wooden corridor. Sliding shoji screens open up to a long room with tatami mats. On the other side of the room, sliding shoji screens open up to another long glass-enclosed veranda with casual seating.


Before and after dinner - tada, the futons come out by the time we finished dinner!

Dinner was in a private dining space on tatami mat with a low table. Okay, if we raved over Kokuya's food, let me just say that Auberge Watanabe's food really threw the game right out of the ballpark. Course after course of prettily presented morsels. The younger kids had bowls of niku udon but the rest of us enjoyed the full course. Deep-fried juicy oysters, hamachi sashimi, steak on a bed of straw mushrooms with a lemon butter sauce and more. Can I just say, wish you were there to try this?



After dinner, we took a quiet but chilly walk down to Itsukushima shrine again, hoping to see the shrine lit by lanterns. Sadly, all was dark that night. Only the O-torii was lit by floodlights in the distance. Even Yuki was puzzled as to why the shrine was not lit that night. That was our only disappointment in what was a fantastic day. Even Trin's major meltdown was not a real dent in the day.

The night was cold, but in our yukatas, snuggled deep under thick covers in our futons, we slept well. Outside the creek running below and the tiny fountain gurgled and burbled away.

Day 11 Koyasan and Osaka

It was dark when I woke up, stumbling over sleeping bodies on the futon to shiver while getting dressed. While staying in a temple, it was only polite and respectful to try to participate in some form of temple life, particularly in their prayer time or ceremonies. In Koyasan, some temples conduct fire ceremonies in the morning but here in Shojoshinin, it was just simply morning prayers.

But even that meant getting up at 5.45am to make it for morning prayers in the big hall. I was the earliest to arrive, after a few wrong turns in the darkened and quiet corridors.

I met the tall monk who checked us in from the day before and he smilingly showed me the way. I took my place on a bench at the back of the hall. Kerosene heaters were ablaze and creating a quiet buzzing in the early morning silence. One by one, other bleary-eyed travellers came in and sat at the back with me. We said little to each other beyond a smile and 'good morning'. Probably it was too early or the hushed atmosphere which just required silence.

I thought I would be bored, but surprisingly, I was not. It was interesting to hear the monks chanting, the occasional clash of cymbals or the deep resonating 'dong' of the bell. There was a soothing rhythm to the chants, like a pleasant, meandering humming river. In the semi-darkness with only the light of candles, sitting with strangers and listening to monks' chanting in the early hours of the morning, it was an experience well worth waking up early for!

It was almost 7am by the time the ceremony was over and time for breakfast. The kids were up by the time I went back to the hanare. Everyone was excited - there was frost on the leaves! It was the first time we had ever seen frost. The night before had been still but deeply cold but yet it was a nice surprise for all of us to actually see the silver-rimmed leaves and branches in the morning!

Breakfast was again strictly vegetarian fare. But it was good! I enjoyed the stewed spinach (in the middle of the tray) and happily accepted everybody else's offer of it since most of the kids did not like their veg. Isaac surprised me this trip by really being very enthusiastic about his food - in particular the kaiseki meal at Kokuya and the shojin ryori at Shojoshinin.

Breakfast over, we regretfully checked out of the hanare. I think all of us wished we had that little house for longer. But it was more practical to check out since we were going to Okunoin and we would not be able to make it back in time for the official check-out time.

Okunoin was vast, sprawling, spreading over hectares filled with towering ancient cedars, mossy stones, red-bibbed Jizos and the tantalisingly lure of legends. There was the tiny well which was said to be able to foretell your long life or predict death. If you could see your reflection in the waters below, you would be assured of a decent lifespan. If you could not, expect to say sayonara in two to three years!


Then there is this one on the right - a tiny stone post commemorating a nun who died several hundred years ago. It was said that if you listened hard enough, you could hear the sounds of hell echoing from below. Yes my kids just HAD to try this even though they were nervously giggling away! For the record, they heard nothing.



Okunoin was fascinating. There were small tombs belonging to individuals, names eroded by time and covered in moss, there were large tombs bought by corporate big names like Panasonic or UCC Coffee for their employees... everyone just wants a share of the land nearest Kobo Daishi in the afterlife! There was even a largish tomb shaped like a space rocket and another that had a jet airplane. These were found in the newer section of the cemetery when we walked back to catch the bus.


After almost 45minutes, we got closer to the heart of Okunoin - the mausoleum of Kobo Daishi. The path opened out into a clearing with a big hall. This is where you can make your offerings, get your temple stamp and calligraphy, purchase omamori and so on. This is also the place where temple staff prepare meals for Kobo Daishi. They believe he is still alive and hence will still faithfully prepare meals for him. This is also where eight significant statues are, among them six Jizos. Pilgrims are encouraged to drench the statues with water to provide succour and relief for the Jizos when they descend to the netherworld to do their job - protect and give relief to the souls of the tiny babies who have died, been aborted or miscarried, or children who have died in childhood. It is said that when these babies die, their souls go to a netherworld where they do hard labour. It is a cold, friendless stony place which is often dry and hot. Jizo would descend to help the babies and protet them against the nasty demons who are ever ready to torment them. Drenching the Jizo can be compared to fire-fighters who pour water over themselves before running in to fight a deadly blaze.

Just next to the row of statues is the bridge running over the Tamagawa stream, called Gobyo-no hashi. Embedded in the stream bed are a line of wooden stakes called sotoba, memorials to the drowned and miscarried babies. Once acrosss the bridge, photography is not allowed. But in the background, you can see the steps leading up to the Hall of Lanterns, or Torodo. Kobo Daishi's tomb is behind this hall. It is said we have to cross the bridge with a pure mind and a pure heart. I'm not sure if i filled this criteria but heck, we crossed anyway!



Just beyond the bridge are more tombs, in one corner, the tombs of emperors. Among them is a small building, about the size of a phone booth, with lattice wooden walls. Within is the Miroku-ishi rock. This is a rock, I think about 3 kg heavy, like a black oval oversized egg. The legend is that you've got to move the rock from its resting place to a ledge above. If you can do that, you have a pure heart and you're probably a good person since the stone is supposed to feel light to the good and heavy to those who are evil. The catch is, you can only use one hand to do lift it since there is only a small window, enough for one arm to go through.



Okay, pity pictures were not allowed because we all tried our best to lift it amidst much pained expressions, red faces, loud grunts and popping joints from arm sockets. Some of us came close but none succeeded. Except for KH. It seemed almost effortless to him. So now you know who has the purest heart among all of us!



With the exception of Trin, who had a mini tantrum, there seemed to be a solemn air pervading the Torodo and understandably so. Within the hall are thousands of bronze lanterns kept alight continuously. These are donated by devotees. Out of these, in the back of the hall, are two that have been kept alight for more than 1000 years. One was donated by an emperor and the other by an old woman who sold everything she had to buy the lantern.



Just behind the Torodo, shrouded in circling mists of incense and flowers, is Kobo Daishi's mausoleum. You could offer a lit candle here, or a lit joss. But we chose to just stand in silence as a mark of respect, contemplating the legend of the man and the whole trail of tombs that have led us here, to the heart of Okunoin. Another family was there. They had a man in his 50s with them and from the sound of it, he might have been suffering from Tourette's syndrome. Every once in a while, the silence would be broken by a sudden shout or agitated yell in Japanese. It was startling and rather disconcerting. The kids glanced curiously at him and asked why he was yelling like this. I said he could not help it, he wasn't trying to be rude but it was a condition he suffered from.



It took us more than 45min just to walk one way to the Torodo and about another 40min to walk back. En route, I got my henro from the Gokusho, the Hall of Offerings. We passed the memorial tomb of the famous 47 ronin and their master Asano. We took the path that led through the newer wing of the cemetery where tombs were clearly built sometime in the middle of the last century. Along the way, we passed tombs marked with icons of rockets and aeroplanes!



It was almost 2pm by the time we got the bus back to Shojoshinin, collected our bags, walked to the heart of town, got the next bus down to the bus station for our ride all the way back down to Gokurabashi and to Osaka. Lunch was in a little cafe perched on a hillside, next to the funicular station. It had great valley views and tasty meals. The kids loved the niku udon and the beef curry.



In Osaka, we had no problem finding our hotel since it was just almost outside the Nankai station. We just had to find the right exit, climb the stairs and right at the top, at street level, is the entrance to Hotel Ichiei! Convenient! Especially when you're tired from a lot of travelling.

I liked Ichiei for its interesting rooms and spacious layout - generous by business hotel standards. The kids had a full tatami-mat Japanese room with futon bedding while KH, Trin and I had a semi-western/Japanese style room. Both were tastefully done up and I liked the fact that they had internet connections but I was not very comfortable with the lack of security. Anyone could come up from street level right into the room floors without passing the front desk. But the price was certainly good value for the rooms we got and it was in the heart of Minami, easy access to nightlife, food and shopping.



It was raining but because the Namba area had such a warren of underground walkways, stations and shopping malls, we could easily walk from our hotel to the main shopping drag without getting wet. Once above ground, there were covered arcades with a bewildering array of food choices. We all pigged out on 100yen conveyor belt sushi for dinner. Cheap, not the best grade of fish and cuts, but satisfying. We had grand plans initially, to walk around the Dotombori area, but I think we were all a bit tired from the journey. With the rain pouring down, it just seemed easier to head back and crash for an early night. The next day was going to be day packed with 5-star sights and lots of travelling!