miyajima

A breakfast feast following a morning bath in the hot springs. How every day should begin. After recovering from breakfast they dropped us off at the ferry station and we shuttled over to Miyajima. This island has been a bastion of oysters and temples/shrines for centuries. The trademark is a giant Torii (temple gate) out in the bay. During high tide, boats would paddle through the gate to get to the main Itsukushi-jinja (a world heritage site.) During low tide you can walk out and around the gate and the temple itself.
The rest of the island is dotted with local shops, temples, shrines, and deer. There was a slight rain but it didn't detract from the joy of wandering around. The tourism wasn't oppresive like it is in most places, and the island is religiously anti-development, as it has been for hundreds of years. Only the very coastal edge on one side of the island is developed. The rest of the island is lush wilderness (home for the deer) and the occassional temple or shrine.
My favorite was the unfinished Senjokaku that Toyotomi Hideyoshi never got to finish building because of his untimely death. It is huge, dark, and stunning, especially considering how it was build without modern equipment. One floorboard is as big as I am, never mind the massive pillars and support beams.
Also of note are the momijimanju making machines. Momijimanju are the maple leaf shaped sweets that are a hallmark of Hiroshima. Every tourist shop has a cool machine that injects the batter into a mold, drops the filling, closes and bakes (flipping over for even cooking), then opens, pulling out the sweets with a mechanical arm and dropping them into a box. There is always:
1) An old woman at the end of the line stuffing the cakes into boxes and wrapping the boxes for sale.
2) An old man poking/prodding/tweaking the machine to keep the batter flow even, the filling bin full, and the gears greased.
We ferried back from the island and checked out a couple of local pottery shops before heading over to Sekitei's restaurant to wait for the ride back. They lead us to a back room which used to be a storehouse but has been turned into a cafe. Again the mark of Sekitei; antique furniture, exposed beam architecture, comfy couch, classical music on the Nakamichi.
Back to Sekitei and again they prepared the private bath for us. I nearly passed out sitting half in the steaming hot bath in the rain, but it was worth it.
Back in the room, another fabulous 10 course meal before a final onsen dip and blissful sleep.