Monday morning we got up (5:00 for me, 7:oo for the boys) and we packed up our stuff and took the train to Hiroshima. We found our new hostel and got our stuff put away. This one was different in that it didn't have beds, just futons on tatami mats (the woven bamboo floors). Pretty barren, but this room had a tv which made the boys happy.
We then headed out and took a train to catch the ferry to the island of Miyajima. This is the place that has that famous floating gate. The ferry ride was only ten minutes and then we spent the day exploring the island. Lots of walking and hiking up trails, and gorgeous scenery. The floating gate was beautiful, and it's considered one of the best sights in Japan. Here's an interesting fact: the Japanese believe that spirits cannot go around corners, so all of their temples and gardens have lots of 90 degree turns. When I get my pictures up look for that. Miyajima reminded me a bit of Catalina Island in California. Lots of shops along the water and mountains all around. We did lots of shopping and then decided to hike up to the ropeway, which is the cable cars that go along the mountain. Yep, these things scare me tremendously, but I'm a good mom and the boys wanted to go on it so I sucked it up. :-/ We started climbing hundreds of stairs and then found out that we had to hike uphill (a steep one!) and I was pooping out. We decided to hang it up and headed back down. We got to the bottom and Ike says, "Oh look, there's a bus that takes you to the top!" :-P Gee, glad he saw that AFTER we went halfway up there. Anyway, we decided to go back up and ride the ropeway. We got on the bus and had a nerve-wracking 5 minute ride on a crazy narrow mountain path with death about two inches from the wheels (remember the bus ride up the mountain on Catalina Island Linda???) and then the bus let us off. We climbed a ton more stairs to the ropeway, rode the tiny car up the mountain (certain death, in my eyes), and then had to ride another one to get to the very top. We got off that one and then climbed more stairs to the very peak of this mountain. Apparantly some monk walked up to this point hundreds of years ago and decided it was a great place to have a meditation spot up there and a temple. They hauled stuff up by foot to make the temple (which we didn't walk the additional three miles, uphill, to see. Yeah, I'm a wuss. Too bad. We got some amazing photos of the sea from up there, as well as great pictures of the Engrish signs about the monkeys. :-)
We headed back down the mountain, did some more shopping and then a thunderstorm started blowing in. We made it back to the ferry just as the rain came down and then back to the train station. We got back to the hostel around 6:00 and the boys decided they wanted to go out to eat. I wasn't moving. :-) They headed out and I stayed back, showered and read my book. Those sweet boys brought back a pizza (not quite as good as American ones, but it was still good) and then they watched strange shows on Japanese tv.
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