Continuing on from the last post with the theme of animal islands, on a particularly dreary day in Hiroshima we caught a ferry out to Miyajima. I was lured out with the promise of deer but other, less mad, people might recognise Miyajima as the island of temples festooned with the famous behemoth red gates erupting from the shallows on the shoreline...
... unless, of course, you accidentally visit at low tide, in which case the gates rise majestically from the mud and washed up coins visitors throw into the water. I weep at the number of Yoshinoya lunches I could have bought with those discarded coins. The temples and pagodas were adorned with characters whose significance, as an ignorant Westerner, I am unaware.
I think it's an especially wise fox. In robes.
En route, and yet very much out of the way of, Kyoto, we trekked up into the mountains for a monastery stay in Koyasan. The dreary weather and mountain mist perfectly offset the beauty of the rural village. If you ignore the hundreds of other wonderstruck tourists ambling down the streets, you do really feel as though you've discovered a little piece of ancient Japan.
Our first day in Kyoto was spent answering the many questions of dozens of Japanese school students with English homework at various temples and attractions. Buckle attempted to win the school kids over with jokes which he said wouldn't translate well in English, but didn't seem to translate too well in Japanese either, judging by the kids' reactions. Kinkaku-ji Temple was the most picturesque of the bunch with its towering Golden Pavilion glistening in the afternoon sun.
Come night we headed out to Gion to experience Kyoto's nightlife (a tame, in-bed-before-11pm sort of experience). The lights of the restaurants reflecting on the river made you want to swoon into the arms of the closest attractive man (I have a ring which ensures one is always readily at hand). The streets of Gion are so bright and alluring, welcoming but mysterious and alien.
One of the Transformer movies is playing as background noise as I write this so I have to end before Shia LeBeouf tolerance reaches maximum saturation, but my next post will be all about Tokyo and its many, many pop culture gems.
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