MIYAJIMA Island. Named one of the three most beautiful places in Japan by a Confucian scholar/traveler in 1643, Miyajima Island lived up to its reputation. It is famous for a few different things. First and foremost, the floating tori gate:
Next, the deer that roam free on the island.
Also famous for the world's largest wooden rice spatula (I'll spare you the picture) and sweets in the form of maple leaves filled with chocolate, bean curd, cream, cream cheese and other delights. Since we forgot to take a picture of these treats, I'll share a picture of a Japanese MAPLE tree.
(Thanks to the photographic stylings of Ms. J. MARTENS for the above two pictures.)
The background to the island is the sacred MOUNT MISEN (home of a Buddhist shrine). It took us just under two hours, but we eventually climbed to the top at 535 meters.
Wait! One more M! MURAKAMI: Since I arrived here six weeks ago everyone has been telling me to read at least one of Hiraki Murakami's novels. I finally got around to checking out one of his books from the library for the trip. I had never heard of Murakami before, and--as these things go--over the past six weeks I've been seeing his name everywhere. I've just started the Wind-up Bird Chronicle, and it is fascinating. Murakami seems to confound modern critics, because no one knows how to label his work. A post-modern humorous mystery writer fusing fantasy and reality while commenting on the social alienation and collective consciousness of a nation? Or something like that.
Funny. That's exactly what I thought when I read Murakami.
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