19 November 2015
Raining tourists
A day trip to Miyajima to hike Mount Misen
It has stopped raining from the sky! Instead I went to Miyajima where it was raining tourists by the boat load.
I took a lot of photos whilst there, so will talk about Miyajima itself with the photos, but before then, my observations...
There are 3 kinds of tourists in Japan. First of all there is the huge European tour group, seniors normally from Germany, sometimes France. They all have huge brightly colored jackets, and can be seen negotiating some kind of discount wherever they go, holding everyone up. These are the most annoying.
Next up, is the mother daughter team, usually from the USA or Australia. I have seen countless combos of mother daughter at the big tourist attractions. The daughter is normally complaining that its too far to walk. But where are the fathers and sons? Back home working is my guess to pay for the mother and daughter.
And finally, the gay couple. One will be fat and have a beard, stereotypes exist for a reason. These couples can come from anywhere, I have seen French, USA, Australian and one couple explaining that they are not American, they are Canadian. They can frequently be seen in the fake antique shops near tourist attractions discussing how that piece would be perfect in some kind of room they have back home.
My next observation for the day is another hilarious TV shopping show for beauty products. This time its for face cream to get rid of wrinkles. A bunch of middle aged women pose for an art class, and the students draw their faces, with many wrinkle lines.
They then use the cream for however long, and return to the same art class to be drawn again. Then in front of the live studio audience they compare drawings pre and post face cream, to the screaming excitement of the crowd who then throw money at the man selling the cream.
I better talk about the photos now.
The train to the Miyajima station takes 45 minutes. Then you go on a ferry to the island, or so I thought. I saw this sign and got really excited.
Alas, it was only a tunnel to the other side of the road. Oh well, ferry time.
The ferry can also take cars, but there were none today.
I was appreciating the blue sky, a lot.
So I took another sky photo.
Everyone raced to the edge of the ferry to photograph the gate thing you can just see here. We nearly flipped.
I went to keep an eye on the motors.
As soon as I left the ferry terminal, my nemesis was waiting for me.
Heres one of the top x scenic spots in all Japan! Top x because these lists are bullshit.
The tide was out, it only becomes a scenic spot when its surrounded by the ocean, so maybe later. This has been rebuilt 8 times, and was last rebuilt sometime last month.
Mass tai chi was observing the gate in the ocean.
Theres nothing left in the world Obama hasnt liked at some point.
Theres a lot of temples and such to pay entry for, or not.
I started my climb, a looping course, its not particularly far or steep. It had some deep puddles though, people in regular shoes were very annoyed.
Today was a day where I actually saw a few other people on the trail.
Its mostly trees and no view until you get to the top.
With the occasional temple of course.
A sure sign I was about to be at the top, some boulders and a tunnel.
The actual peak is quite far from the cable car, but they have erected a viewing platform with toilets underneath.
I never actually saw the cable car, but I saw people walking to the cable car station doubled over clutching their chests. Its 100 steps and theres signs telling you of your progress to get to the bottom station.
The amount of complaining was pretty hilarious, some people now cant even make it up a few stairs to get on a machine to haul their lazy ass up the mountain.
This deer still has his horns. I could have been killed.
Not a bad view.
I took a lot of view photos, but have spared the world from scrolling to get past them.
Deadly snake warning! I have been wandering around the mountains not even on trails with gay abandon.
The way down was much much more developed than the way up, it was a concrete path the whole way, and the occasional dam.
Nearly back down now, and I can see the tide has come in to surround the gate.
There are still more temples to pay to look at, or climb around to photograph without paying.
Both the path up and down pretty much follow a stream of waterfalls the whole way. Plenty of water today due to 3 days straight of rain.
Once back down, I had the famous maple leaf snack, filled with red bean. Two varieties, red bean with skin, red bean without skin. I couldnt tell the difference.
These are hand made by an automated machine. Basically, its an obun. There are over 100 shops with a machine making them for the hordes of tourists.
You can also pay to walk along this thing which is apparently spiritually rewarding when the tides come in fully. But its under construction as you can see.
I think the idea with this is to capture the reflection in very still ocean.
Instead I captured the deer, being intimidated by a pigeon.
There is an extensive tourist shopping area to buy chopsticks and glass jewelry and food on sticks.
Or you can observe another giant wooden spoon. Didnt I see one in Nagoya too? Theres a box accepting donations for this one.