Miyajima
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Day 13 (Monday): Miyajima album here. One of the “three most scenic spots of Japan,” Miyajima’s Itsukushima Shinto Shrine is a World Cultural Heritage site and the Mt. Misen Primeval Forest a national treasure. (The other three spots, according to 1643 Confucian scholar Shunsai Hayashi, are Matsushima and Amanohashidate, just in case you were wondering.) The shrine is dedicated to three goddesses: Ichikishima-hime, Tagitsu-hime and Tagori-hime, deities of the sea, traffic safety, fortune, and accomplishment.
(I’m not sure how “traffic safety” got in there, but it did. Maybe those narrow, windy roads on the island are to blame?)
The shrine is best known for its O-torii Gate, 16.6 meters high and standing out in the water during high tide. Traditionally one enters the shrine through the torii gate, but in this case, one would have to take a boat to do so.
Today we visited the gate and shrine and had a chance to walk around the lower town; tomorrow we’ll go up on the mountain, which is considered sacred and has a Buddhist temple related to Kobo Daishi, a priest, near the summit. Also, monkeys. Guess which the students are most excited about? 
Several of us chose to take another trip by ferry out to the island tonight to see the O-torii Gate lit up; the five-storied pagoda build in 1407 was also lit and absolutely lovely against the star-speckled night sky.
drupagliassotti @ May 31, 2010