Miyajima

Hiroshima has also brought the heat. I think it's competing with Tokyo. But yesterday, we organised our rail tickets for Kyoto on Friday, and then headed into town to try and find some sandals for Sean, who is sporting some impressive mosquito-bitten feet that are making it very painful to wear covered shoes. Success! We obtained sandals, an umbrella, some food, and then made our way down to Miyajimaguchi station to catch the ferry to the island of Miyajima.

I LOVE MIYAJIMA. I was here in 2013, when it was a bit rainy and cold, but still beautiful (see this post for details). The day of our visit this year coincided with an enormous fireworks festival that happened in the evening, and as a result, the island was PACKED with people. We walked up and down the shopping streets and along the beach, buying street food, taking photos of the wild deer that roam the island, looking at souvenirs, eating all different flavours of momiji manju, and walking right out at low tide to the giant torii gate that the island is so famous for.

We walked up to Daisho-in Temple, my favourite place on the island, where it was a lot cooler and less crowded, and then sat in the stream that comes from up the mountain to cool our feet. We met a whole bunch of people, Japanese and tourists. One guy offered to take a photo of the two of us, and later in the night we met people because we photobombed their selfie. But the time we battled our way through the crowds to get a spot to watch the fireworks, our feet were aching intensely. But we stayed on them for another five hours. The fireworks started at 7.40, and went for over an hour, the most beautiful and creative fireworks display I have ever seen. The crowd totally did that thing where everyone 'oohed' and 'aahed' in unison, and it pretty much made the pain in my feet worth it.

THESE ARE NOT MY PHOTOS. I googled them because my camera wouldn't take good ones.
In terms of 'would I do it again?' No. I would stay on the mainland and watch it from there! I am very glad we had the experience we had, but we got in the line to go home at 9pm, we were arriving at Miyajimaguchi at 10.55pm, and we got back to our apartment at 12.05am, all the while standing up. But it was wonderful to be part of something so huge, and it is something I will remember forever!