As you can see above, it's a floating gate!! Ok, it's not actually, but at high tide, it does look like it. I've always been intrigued with this particular torii and perhaps I built it up a bit too much because it was almost underwhelming when I saw it. I expected it to be super massive and hundreds of metres out in the water and perhaps radiating some kind of ethereal vermilion... and though it is very pretty and quite immense, it wasn't as big as I thought it'd be nor was it particularly far. But at least I can check it off my list haha...
Amongst its various temples, hiking paths, and other features, Miyajima is also home to wildlife very accustomed to humans. In fact, the deer are known to follow people around and help clean the park by eating whatever they can find, including hand-out maps of the island... and what better date than going to Miyajima and sharing a tasty folded paper map??
Right next to the O-torii is the Itsukushima Shrine. It's built on stilts, is surrounded by water at high tide, and has a three pronged pier the middle of which points directly at the gate. Being so, however, means it's inevitably crowded with people so I offer this shot of the entrance walkway instead =P...
The banister on the staircase leading up to the Daisho-in Temple. Founded in 806 by Kobo Daishi, one of the most famous monks in Japan, it's rather important in that it's the oldest temple found in Miyajima as well as the principal temple for Shingon Buddhism.... now that I think about, I really should add a picture of the temple... I'll get to that later haha.....
From there you can take the Daisho-in hiking course (read: stairway) to the top of Mt. Misen, the highest point on Miyajim at 535m. Interesting, it felt much higher and much steeper than Mt. Takao despite the latter being higher at 600m. Either way, climbing offers rather interesting views such as...
... the O-torii and...
... more deer!
After you've huffed and puffed your way to the top, there's a free observation tower for you take in the sights of being on the highest peak at Miyajima. There's also exorbitantly over-priced drinks for sale but I guess nothing tastes better after a big hike than a $3 bottle of Pocari Sweat =P... In the upper picture, the tree on the right conveniently points to Hiroshima.
A few minutes walk from the observation tower is the Reika-do Eternal Flame Hall. As the name suggests, the hall houses a flame lit by Kobo Daishi in 806 and has been burning for 1200 since. Apparently, however, it also contains 1200 years of ash floating around as walking inside made my eyes instantly water... on a lighter note (no pun intended heh), this flame was used to light the Peace Flame at Peace Park in Hiroshima.
I took the Momojidani Course down which, despite being free, was rather boring. It's basically a nature hike and there's little to see except for some very natural nature. It's pretty easy to walk, having less steps than the Daisho-in course but those with weak knees would be recommended the Ropeway gondola, although that costs 1000yen (!). Reaching the bottom after 6 hrs of wandering the island, I was greeted again by the O-torii but this time at low-tide. You're free to walk out to the gate (and many people do; I waited a long time to get the above shot) and the gate really does become immense then. You have to crane your neck to see every detail- detail like the massive tree trunks used as the main pillars or the coins jammed into various places by boaters hoping for good luck.
Ironically, the gate is prettiest at high-tide yet its presence is most impressive at low-tide...
Some samples of Miyajima shapes and textures...
On the last day, I went for a short walk at the Shukkeien Gardens next to Hiroshima Station before getting a tour at Mazda.
The Shukkeien Garden is man-made yet designed to replicate various popular scenery at 4/5 scale. It's got a small pagoda to relax in, a stone bridge (seen above, on the left), mini waterfalls abound. It's actually rather pretty, like a man-made piece of art would be.
I'm not really sure how I feel about such man-made nature areas, but it turns out that the park is quite old as a small plaque shows how most of the park was destroyed in the atomic bombing. And it does have some rather quaint stepping stone bridges and paths and whatnot...... it's a bit like the Sun Yat Sen Garden in Vancouver I guess....
The last event of the day was a tour of the Mazda Museum and factory. It wasn't as comprehensive as the Honda museum although they're not as big as Honda. I also thought it was biased a bit too heavily towards the rotary engine. I mean, I know that's what they're famous for, but they have lots of innovative and famous non-rotary cars as well (the Miata above is one of them).
But they do have a good collection of old and important cars, including this 1991 787B, the only Japanese race car to win the 24hrs of Le Mans. Powered by the 4-rotor 40B (seen on the right), it proved to the world the funny little triangle in a peanut shaped housing was here to stay.
Unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside the factory, but it was nice being in there. The Mazda assembly line is rather nice in that various cars can be assembled on the same line, and parts are delivered to specific stations (ie- dashboard station, taillight station) and the require parts are delivered from the floor below. This way, technicians can be trained to install similar parts on 3 or 4 cars and work an area for a shift, allowing the assembly line to more fine tune it's supply to meet demand.
Some samples of Mazda textures and shapes...
This last picture, besides looking cool in my opinion, is interesting in that Mazda has become the first manufacturer to develop a method to fully recycle the plastic in bumpers. It's been quite difficult to do since different bumpers use different types of plastics and are covered in different paints, but Mazda's process is more effective at separating the various components and can thus better recycle the material.
And thus was my whirlwind tour of Hiroshima. I do apologize if the writing is a bit curt this time around, as it's getting really late and I'm headed to Nara first thing tomor-... this morning... but I wanted to put this up anyway.
This last pic I took as my train sped towards Tokyo. Japan- Land of the Setting Sun?
2 comments:
Agreed re: Mazda and rotary engines. The RX8 is the only interesting car they've put out in years and they're the only company to really make that engine tech work so effectivey (1.3litres and 250+ horsepower anyone?!). Almost undoes some of the damage of the utterly mainstream MX5 (the typical hairdressers car).
You're right, although some argue the RX-8 is really a 2.6-litre, but that's being REALLY nerdy heh... while others will argue the MX-5/Miata is a great car to drive despite its looks =P...
But you make a good point that if you strip away the RX-7 and RX-8's success with the rotary, you aren't left with much =P...
But there were other glimmers, like the 323 GTX (AWD and turbocharged) which they DIDN'T have on display... oh well =P
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