The plan is to start out at 8:00 am because it is
better to see the Itsukushima Shrine with its “floating” Torii Gate at high
tide. We headed for Miyajima Island
directly upon leaving the hotel. We had
to take a ferry to get to the island, which was a relatively short ferry
ride. Apparently Miyajima Island is
considered a special place and blood is not supposed to be spilled there;
consequently woman leave the island during the menstrual cycle as well as when
it is time to give birth. Death is not
supposed to occur on the island either, but that can’t be controlled as
easily. This island is the last place
with a combined Buddhist/Shinto shrine.
The main Torii gate is built in the water although at low tide it may
not be in the water. We entered the
shrine area and Hiro (our guide) noticed that the monks were preparing to
perform a dance. We stayed to watch at
least part of it. The monks wore
elaborate costumes. We remained for the
“purification” dance and for part of the “longevity” dance. Hiro took us on a walk to see the maple
groves which are on the higher ground of the island. We then wandered through the street with
stores. I was tempted to buy a wooden
ladle, but decided to save my money to buy a nice piece of pottery tomorrow.
Pagoda
One of the dancers
Dance to drive out evil spirits
Another dancer
Dance to drive out evil spirits
New dancers
Gardens
We returned to the main land via ferry boat and then
loaded into the bus for our trip to Kurashiki.
We stopped for lunch at a rest stop before continuing on into Kurashiki,
which is designated as a historical district because of the old warehouses
along the canal. The big attraction in
Kurashiki is the Ohara Art Museum. We
wandered around a while with our guide and then he turned us loose. Ros and I chose to look at the art in the
Ohara Museum first. Then we found the
local shopping arcade and wandered around.
We finally had had enough of walking and returned to the hotel for a
short rest before going out to dinner.
We elected to have dinner at the restaurant next to the hotel. We were told that it would open at 6:00 pm;
however it did not open until 6:30pm. We
went back to the hotel to sit and rest for the half hour. The food at the restaurant proved to be
reasonably good and we had a relaxing meal.
Tomorrow we head to Osaka.
Street scene in historic district of Kurashiki
Restaurant where we had dinner
No comments:
Post a Comment