July 12 Journal - Shared by Molly Chaffin

Our second beautiful day in Japan began with a Western-style breakfast (eggs, ham, rolls, potato salad, rice and GREAT coffee) in the Miyajima Seaside Hotel. After breakfast we walked down to the pier and saw the Otorii Gate (which literally means big bird perch). Next to Otorii is the Miyajima Shinto Shrine. Walking in, we experienced the cleansing process; we each dipped the ladle into the water and rinsed both hands and our mouths. Then we moved on to a similar tradition where we took a stick with strips of tissue paper on the ends and shook it over each shoulder to shake off evil spirits. After we were cleansed, we prayed to the deity by tossing a coin into a wooden grate, bowing twice and clapping twice. In the shrine, a wedding ceremony was about to take place. The bride was very kirei, or beautiful, and we were allowed to take a picture with the soon-to-be newlyweds.
Then we moved on to the Buddhist shrine which was right next to the Shinto shrine. The two religions coexist and many people in Japan practice both. Walking up the stairs we spun very large beads along the rail. These beads have kanji written on them, and spinning them is a way to speak to the gods. We looked at many shrines and actually got to sit in on a Buddhist ceremony. We couldn’t take pictures of the ceremony but it was one of our favorite parts. We sat on the floor and watched as a Buddhist monk chanted in Japanese. Another fun experience was walking through a dark basement hallway where pictures of deities lined the walls. After leaving the shrine, we perused down the shopping street and then boarded the ferry back to the mainland.
On the mainland, Tamami helped us purchase boxed lunches (including sushi rolls and rice wrapped in tofu for the girls, curry for Rylan and shrimp on rice for Shii) from a convenient store and wonderful sweets from a pastry shop. We ate these in the taxi van on the way to the Akiyoshi Cave. The Akiyoshi Cave was really cool, literally! It was self-guided too, which the group enjoyed. We saw limestone pools and formations and learned that it takes 400 years for three centimeters of the limestone stalactites to grow, and most of them were huge! After the cave we drove to the Akiyoshi Plateau, where the group experienced our first traditional toilets. Then we sat on the stairs and looked out at the plateau, a vast expanse of large hills spotted with thousands of rocks. Then we drove to Yamaguchi and spent a few minutes at the Pagota. It was a palatial, five-story high building. We sat below it next to a pond filled with koi fish. It was a beautiful sight.
We arrived at the hotel around 6:30 and walked down to a family restaurant. We referred to it as a Japanese Denny’s. A good amount of the food was Italian and American, but we managed to order somewhat Japanese food like curry, shrimp, rice and mizo soup. After dinner, most of the group tried out the hotsprings, a public bath on the roof! It was very nice to relax our tired muscles under the stars. That night we gladly collapsed in our beds after an extremely busy day of exciting new experiences.