Atom Tan Part 2

Miyajima Island

Our hostel was just a 10 minute boat ride from the mainland to Miyajima. Miyajima is the main tourist attraction, other than the bomb, that Hiroshima has. If you've even seen that photo of the Japanese shrine in the water then this is where it is.

We went across in a four. Me, Steve, Adam and Sheena. They had to head for a campsite on the other end of the island so we waited with them for the bus. Before long however we were attacked by hoards of tame deer, who, after great persistence, managed to steal and eat a pizza from　Adam's bag. He seemed a little offended.

Me and Steve left the guys and made the conscious decision to hike the mountain. It was 2.5Km up, not much really, but when its absolutely boiling outside it is a killer. We bought Kamikaze headbands in town and it wasn't long before they were covered in sweat.

We cooled off occasionally in the river that runs along side the mountain trail. This river is essentially man made, or at least man reconstructed, after a mudslide in 1945 leveled half the island and a very important shrine. It was built in a Japanese garden style, so although it looks very constructed it still somehow retains a look of its environment.

After almost killing ourselves on the climb we reached the summit and used Steve's speakers and my camera to create a Rocky montage of us ascending the last few steps of the viewing platform. This is good and will be put on facebook soon.

We ran down the mountain to get back to the town in time for lantern festival thingy. Pink Floyd on the way up = 1h and a half. Generic metal on the way down = 25 minutes.

There had been a festival going on all day but the bit we were involved in took place on the shore with lanterns and Japanese guys with drums and boats making a lot of religiously significant noise. With the symbolism somewhat lost on us we waved lanterns around, said goodbye to the guys and got the boat back to the mainland.

On the mainland was the Scarborough Pirates Rugby League team, complete with token Rovers fan, its OK I didn't catch anything.

Steve decided to come to Fukuoka/Hakata with me...so well...he did...