Miyajima

1st kanji: "miya" (me-ya)=shrine, palace, prince 2nd kanji: "jima" (gee-ma)=island

say: Me-ya-gee-ma

Miyajima's claim to fame is this famous 'floating torii' gate, seen here at (unfortunately) low tide.  In the background you see mainland Japan (perhaps Hiroshima... I'm not certain), and the island of Miyajima is behind me... what I'm standing on. (:  This gate is really huge; you can see the natural shape of the tree trunks it was made from in the two main legs.  And it's a bright, gorgeous orange.  It looked beautiful later in the evening, lit up against the dark water. (:

Torii gates are typically placed at the entrances to shrines (which are Shinto, not Buddhist).  The Shinto 'faith' is not really a religion, as you might normally think of it.  I kind of think it's similar to the Native American beliefs--that there are spirits that live here on Earth with us, and we should respect all life, etc, etc.  (This is a webpage, not religion class!) Anyways, shrines are usually found in some of the most picturesque areas of Japan--like Miyajima here.  It is considered one of the "three best views" in Japan, and is probably the most famous.  (I can't remember the other two at the moment... so there, that helps illustrate that point.)

Like I said, Miyajima is an island (hence the 'jima' kanji... right?).  And kind of a small one.  Well, to get there, Jeremy and I had to take a short ferry ride to the island.  We docked several meters away from the orange torii and walked over to it, through one of the small, touristy towns on the island.  There were a few 'wild' deer wandering around too.  We got to pet a few, before they realized we weren't offering food and wandered away. :-P  They were still cute, though!

Our ferry ride to Miyajima

See the little orange blob in the center of the photo?  On the 'horizon line' of the water?  Yeah!  There!  That's the big, orange torii gate in the photo above, from the opposite direction.  So, Miyajima is behind it.

Hiroshima

Himeji