Miyajima

We went to Miyajima after Hiroshima. It is where the famous tori gate out in the water is located. When the tide is out you can walk out under it on the sand. When the tide is in, the gate and the shrine stands on piers in the water. We went out and took some cool night pictures. Later, we got in the Japanese bath. I felt bad because when we went to get in Don was there. Since you have to be naked in the bath, I'm pretty sure Don left because he couldn't be there with students. It sucks our society has become so letigious. The bath was really nice though. It was quite large, and looked out onto a garden. The next morning we got up and had breakfast. Then we headed off to see the shrine and climb the mountain. It was only about 3 km walk to the top, but it was mostly stairs and pretty steep. The view was pretty nice, and we even saw a submarine in the water below. At the top, there were monkeys. (I am fully aware of what it looks like the monkey in the background is doing to the monkey in the foreground)

There weren't very many but they were pretty cool. Before we had to catch the ferry, we went to the hall of 1,000 tatamis. It had no tatamis and wasn't even large enough to hold 1,000. We also went to a small woodworkers shop. I got a really cool tea canister made from a single piece of wood. I of course got the simplest one they had. I wish I could have gotten one out of one of the super exotic woods but those were like 400+. Some of the stuff in the shop was really pretty. I might have to hit the lathe when I get home.