宮島のお花見: Miyajima's Ohanami

Well, actually, this doesn't really count as an ohanami since we just simply walked around miyajima... But there were 8 of us on this trip.. Since Hiromi was kinda late, Tat-chan and I waited for her while Choon, Hashimoto-san and his wife, Choon's senior william and his gf Miwako-san.. So after Hiromi came, we simply boarded the ferry heading for Miyajima.. And while I was on the Ferry, I spotted Mango look alike!!! So cute!!!!

These two toy poodles are more toy like than my mangoちゃん(chan)!!!

And we finally arrived in Miyajima.. So here's a photo of me and Hiromi chan.. The second time to Miyajima seemed less spectacular... But this place is actually one of the top three must visit places in Japan...

Mainly due to the free roaming deers lazing around in Spring.. Haha...

One thing is different this time round.... Sakuras!!!!!
Sakuras just made everything in Miyajima look more beautiful!!!
Including ugly me.. Hahaha!!
This sakura is different fromt he usual ones.. This one is called 枝垂桜(Shidare-zakura)　Which means that the sakura is hanging downwards loosely.. As you see the 漢字、枝垂　means sticks hanging down.. 垂=chui(2) not chui(3)(cold...)

This is the normal sakuras we can see almost everywhere, can't remember the name.. But I think Shidarezakura are one of the most beautiful variety...

After a long walk, we had a chance to seat at a nice 喫茶店 (kissaten).. Hashimoto-san was so nice to treat me to cheesecake!!! But I found it a little too hard and not sweet enough...
And here, you see itsukushima in the background.. I still havent had the chance to enter till now... boohoo... but you can see in the mountains, there are little white patches, those are sakuras!!!
Here is a group shot of everyone except Hashimoto-san and junko san.. Second guy from the right is william with his japanese gf.. So sweet right? William is a half japanese.. And Miwako's time in Singapore gave her a Singaproe accent in English.. So cute...
Choon caught this nice shot... I thought it was pretty nicely captured...

Sakura entries are ending soon... Boohoo... :S But newer entries coming soon!!!!

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Miyajima

Dear Everyone, I finally finished my 10-part series on Miyajima. please take a good look at this place well known for keeping most of its nature and olden look of Japan. I have arranged it in reader friendly chronological order. Please enjoy!

10th Feb 2008 宮島Miyajima Part 1: The 25km cycle

Choon and I woke up super early on this beautiful sleepy Sunday.. As beautiful as the Sunday was, the cold was slightly more tolerable by Choon's preference, but unbearable by my standards.. We were heading for Miyajima, Japan's third favourite Tourist attraction. Its basically an island on the South of Hiroshima City.. So Choon and I cycled our way there to save the 600yen(S$8) on train trip there.. Its 25km!!! It sounds not so far, but believe me.. cycling in the cold makes this distance seem so much furthur..
As popular as everyone knows KFC, I think its not that popular here.. This is like the second one I've seen.. But its not so common to see a KFC house standing on it own like that right? On top of that, there is a drive through! Oh, by the way, cehck out that Mazda car in the background.. Hiroshima is like the only place I know where Toyota doesn't dominate the car market..

Any idea why I'm taking photos with these two man? Well, Choon and I kinda skip a red light at one of the smaller crossings.. And.. we were caught by the Traffic police!!!!! The bicycle Traffic Police!!! They were in this van, which had a loud hailer on the top of the van and it said:"そこの自転車が止めてください。止めてください" Which means The bicycles over there, please stop, please stop. Urh.. We were like huh? What was that.. :P Apparently we were 3/4 on the way to Miyajima, but the problem is that we were so dazed and tired we din notice the red light.. Ok lar, we were just plain lazy to wait at a road with no cars.. But after abit of struggle wth my horrible standards of Japanese, we were let off with a warning.. We surprised the Bike Police by asking for a photo shoot with them!! Hahaha.. Look at the man on the right! :P

After all ouｒ cycling, We were almost at Miyajima Guchi 宮島口。。 The train you see behind is for inter areas travelling.. So we waited at the crossing and took another shot! :P

Tada!!! I'm at 宮島～
Well, not exactly.. 宮島 is an island.. And As you can see, I'm only the Miyajima port...　So this structure is just a landmark of Miyajima called the Ootori gate.. The Port has its shelters designed to look like the ootori gate.. :P So you can see its really quite pretty.. But this is only 1/5 the size of the real ootori gate...

Look at how messy my hair turned from the 25km cycle... Yawnz... In case you're wondering, I am wearing a wig.. :D

10th Feb 2008 宮島Miyajima Part 2: Miyajima Port 宮島口

After buying our ferry tickets which costs 640 yen two way(SGD$8.64), we took a walk around the Miyajima Guchi to take photos.. Besdies, the queue was kinda long since everyone was here for the 牡蠣祭り(Kaki Matsuri=Oyster Festival) It appears that there were many soft serve ice cream everywhere on Miyajima and Miyajima guchi.. There were many flavours available too!!! Each soft serve is more than 300 yen, which is the SGD$4, the price of our uzumaki ice cream in bugis.. Boy do I miss bugis.... But since I'm on a budget trip, I shall settle for this big plastic one..
This is the "ootori gate" you saw in the previous entry... Not that big eh? Haha...
Welcome to Miyajima.. This is the map of the beautiful island.. And there's the Ootori gate! I wonder something.. What is on the other side of the island?
And we boarded the ship!! The queue was long, but its was fast boarding the ship!! thumbs up to the ferry efficiency!!! Can you see the Ootori gate in the backgound?

10th Feb 2008 宮島Miyajima Part 3: Arrival on the Island and the cute deers!

Choon and I were snacking away on the Ferry even when it landed.. We were enjoying the view so much we didn't wanna move.. Besides.. we cycled in the cold for 25km!!! So the Ferry attendant chased us off the ferry since the Japanese are well known for their punctuality.. From the sheltered port, we could see Hiroshima from the little island..And yes, that is Hiroshima (Er-hem.. not Hokkaido) And after exiting the ferry terminal, I arrived at the entrance of the terminal.. The brown building in the background is a hotel.. Miyajima hotel?
Check out this pretty girl in traditional costume.. Choon thinks she's really pretty.. I had to take photo twice for him and he was so noisy... The first time he couldn't stop complaining how bad he looked.. and the photo is a waste since the girl is so pretty.. and the second time he complained the girl didn't smile nicely, so she ain't so pretty liaoz.. bla bla bla.. Choon arh.. you very ma fan leh..

And as the titles mentioned, there are deers roaming EVERYWHERE on Miyajima.. This one is the friendliest... Mainly cuz its too lazy to react.. So I did all sorts of shots with the friendly deer.. Hahaha...
The deer on the bottom right has grown its anthlers.. Cool right? But it does look fiercer...Did I say the deers are such a glutton they eat everything including paper ? One of them ate my map!!

10th Feb 2008 宮島Miyajima Part 4: かき祭り

One of the top reasons why we chose to come Miyajima today was for the かき祭りaka Oyster festival.. So there were a lot of these little stalls.. Its kinda like a smaller version of our 'Pasar Malam' Please observe this 大根(Dai-kon) also known as Radish.. Think there's alot of emphasis on the 大.. Haha.. This is S$3 and we had to queue for this pathetic but tasty fish cake with oyser inside.. and its fried!! Wahaha.... Its shaped in the shape of a maple leaf, called もみじ　(Momiji) The maple leaf seems to be the prefecture plant for Hiroshima perfecure, so many things in Hiroshima are named after もみじ.
And since this is an oyster festival, bbq-ed oysters are one of the must eats at the festival, other than oyter in japanese curry, oyter udon, oyster ramen, etc..

Ever wondered how does wasabi really look like? Here's the famous nose clearing plant, Wasabi!!!! Ill never eat it.. It spoils the taste of food.. :S

There's Japanese pancake and of course I wanna try it.. It looks so good!!!!
The background is this stage with someone singing... There's alof of performance going on.. think its to keep the pple queueing for their food entertained...
This is my pancake!! Wanna share? HEhe.. I love pancakes!!! Especially when they're hot!!!

10th Feb 2008 宮島Miyajima Part 5: Walking Towards the Ootori Gate

After playing with the deers, Choon and I walked towards the Ootori gate.. The Ootori gate is like the landmark of Miyajima. It used to be accessible all day. But with rising sea levels, it is only possible to touch the Ootori Gate by boat... So along the way, we stopped at some shops, played with a few deers.. Took a few pics at the barrier for the sea.. There were many "pasar malam" stalls selling different food.. Yummy!!

10th Feb 2008 宮島Miyajima Part 6: The inaccessible Ootori(大鳥） Gate

Introducing.. The Ootori Gate.. Yes.. ITs the BIG BIRD Gate.. as the chinese characters mentioned.. But its actually 大鳥居. Every temple ｈas a 鳥居。But the thing is the gate for the 厳島(i-tsu-ku-shi-ma) shrine is super big.. So there is the word big there..
No one knows well why its called that, but I did some research and found out that one of the believes is because its a good resting place for birds. Sounds corny, but it does makes sense. (Look at that person looking at my corny pose!!)
It is believed that this gate separates the ancient shrine from the modern world..
Since the gate is partially submerged in the sea, it is believed to be floating and boats that arrive in the past had to make a pass at this gate.

10th Feb 2008 宮島Miyajima Part 7: 厳島 Shrine and 紅葉谷 Park

After a few shots with the Ootori gate, Choon and I proceeded to the Itsukushima shrine (In the background) Too bad entrance fee is required.. So too bad.. We can only look at it from outside and

From a distance.. But as I said the Ootori entry that all shrines in Japan has a bird gate, the big bird gate is for the itsukushima shrine..

After which we proceeded to the 5 levels pagoda as seen here... you can see 5 levels...
There is actually a museum displaying drawings above me, but again need $$.. So too bad for us...
We went to the momijidani park, known as the maple leaf valley, and its really beautiful... look at the nature in here..
I found this shop in the park really interesting.. AS you see in the background, there is the shop.. And outside the shop, you can see all these display of tables in japanese style..

10th Feb 2008 宮島Miyajima Part 8: Walking in the small Alleys of Miyajima

Ooops... Choon caught a picture of me wiping my drool from looking at the momiji manju. The momiji manju is one of the famous produce in the prefecture of Hiroshima. Its basically a cake shaped like a maple leaf. The taste? Hmmm Tastes like our kueh buloh except there are fillings such as red bean, custard etc.

I was quite amazed withhow industrialised the momanji manju process became.. So, I made a video for everyone to see how the process goes... Each of this maple leaf shaped cakes cost about SGD$0.90

Think you would have heard the miss pronounciation.. I said momiji manji.. lol.. Well, it was thx to choon for my miss pronounciation.. BUt its called Mo-mi-ji Man-ju

This is the world's largest rice paddle.. In case you are wondering wad is this bis rice paddle used for, it can't be used.. Its just for you to be amazed that its a rice paddle that big.. Looks more like a table, or a pizza pan...
Hello!!!! Kitty... -_-''' I'm making myself cold.... But Miyajima has its own chain of Hello Kitty produce as you can see below:
Since I'm here, one of things that should not be missed out is the Oysters!!!! We're here for the Oyster festival, but we ate the oyster at one of the local shops instead.. Oysters are another famous produce in Hiroshima.. In particular, Miyajima.. You can actually see the oyster farms floating on the sea like our kelongs...
But these beauties don't come cheap.. These fresh barbequed oysters cost 400 yen for two. That's $5.40 for two mini pieces of meat!!! But its a must eat though... They're really tasty!! :POyster for you? I'll sell you mine for $6..