Itsukushima

After the gloom-laden morning in Hiroshima and a spot of lunch, Kawai, Miyawaki and I decided on a trip to Itsukushima. This Shinto Temple is on a rather beautiful off-shore island, and is world heritage listed while

several other buildings and artifacts are  listed as Japanese National Treasures.

Getting there was slightly complex. I needed some cash badly and so we headed off in search of a bank whose automatic tellers would accept a foreign credit card and tell me how to extract money in English. That took an extra 30 minutes or so in suburban Hiroshima.

Then we needed to get to Miyajimaguchi, a little port from which the ferries departed. We decided to take a tram, which is not the fastest means of transport and

spent perhaps 45 minutes ambling out of Hiroshima and southwards down the coast. Parts of the journey threw interesting light on life in a large Japanese city, but I was glad to get to Miyajimaguchi.

There, the trip rapidly became a lot more interesting and we bought a cheap ticket across to the other side with one of the two ferry companies frequently plying the route. The first picture shows the recently departed JR ferry with Itsukushima island in the background. The island was shrouded in mist and low cloud, as the picture shows and it reminded me of some of the more mysterious and romantic travel

brochures one sees.

The first pleasant surprise on getting off the ferry were the deer roaming freely over the island. They were unconcerned about the movements of humans, and someone like Max could easily have gone up and patted one.

After giving the tourist shops the slip, we walked along the island foreshores towards the Shinto shrine. You can see me here in front of what I suppose is the Temple entrance guarded by some stone animals of dubious existence. One thing that had immediately

impressed me about the island was the large number of children roaming around. Obviously, this was a top tourist destination for families.

Turning a corner, we saw one of the images of Japan often portrayed on travel brochures: the 'arch' standing in the placid waters of the bay, with the mountains of the mainland in the background. It was a very beautiful sight, enhanced as I mentioned before by the gray skies, misty clouds and, now, the falling of light rain.

We all posed for pictures in front of the structure and, since you've seen me, I show Kawai and Miyawaki. There was a constant scramble my a large number of people to take this kind of souvenir photo.

We ambled around the temple complex and reached the rather attractive inner sanctum shown sixth photo. I joined with my hosts in what must be a Shinto ritual of tossing some coins into a very large box, bowing to what I presume is a kind of Altar, and - except for me - clapping one's hands. I would have liked to have struck the large drum, which took my mind back to a

an evening I once attended in Armidale of Japanese drumming performed by a professional group.

And so we moved on in heavier rain to return to the ferry past a rather beautiful temple tower ... I do not know the proper name of this structure. However, I am sure you'll agree with me that it is very attractive. The voyage back to Hiroshima was much faster than our arrival because we took a local train rather than the tram. There I bought a Shinkansen ticket for Okayama and soon departed in the gathering gloom of evening for Doo-Chul's home.

This bought to an end a perfect day helped greatly by Kawai's and Miyawaki's kind assistance. They even presented me with a little wooden souvenir of the temple, which was very kind. Thanks, guys, for a memorable occasion.

AS