Miyajima, The Shrine Island 5-21-2013

Okay, so the worst part about playing catch up on a place you visited 2 months ago has to be the fact that I don't remember much. LOL. What can I say about Miyajima except for the fact that it was such an amazing place! It is an island whose proper name is Itsukushima but everyone simply knows it by Miyajima which literally means Shrine Island in Japanese and is most famous for floating torii gate.

 Of course with it being an island you have to take a short ferry ride over

Waiting for the Ferry

Here it is!

With daddy

Decided she wanted mommy

The island coming into view

Yup that's a deer!

In case you haven't noticed yet there are deer everywhere! They are called Nihonjika "Japanese deer" and just wander around the island.

The area is known for oysters

The world's largest spatula (over 5 meters long)

The area is also well known for its rice scoops (spatula)

Lots of souvenir shops

The torii gate

Itsukushima Shrine

We got lucky and went to the island during low tide so we were able to walk right up to the torii gate. The shrine and its torii gate are unique for being built over water, seemingly floating in the sea during high tide. The shrine complex consists of multiple buildings, including a prayer hall, a main hall and a noh theatre stage, which are connected by boardwalks and supported by pillars above the sea. We didn't get to do the shrine because there were several school field trips going on and they were all in the shrine at the time :(

The White Horse... I'm sorry but I can't remember the significance of this

 The giant brown building below is called Hokoku Shrine and was previously called Senjokaku which means Hall of One Thousand Tatami Mats. It was built in 1587 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi but was left incomplete after his death. It is pretty much an empty space with no ceilings or front entrance.

5 story Pagoda was built in 1407 and is part of the Itsukushima Shrine