Here Monkey, Monkey, Monkey...

The Ryokan that we stayed at last night was very traditional, and last nights meal was a challenge for all of us. Having been sick earlier the same day, I can tell you that experimenting with Japanese cuisine was not high on my wish list. There was a lot of really strange looking and strange tasting food on the table. Even with all of the strange stuff in front of us, I thought we had a great attitude about it and we tried what we were comfortable with. When we got back to the room Fintan had three peanut granola bars before going to bed….

Our decision to have the “western style” breakfast the next morning was not a difficult one to make.

After breakfast we made the short walk up to the start of the cable car ropeway that takes you up to Shishiiwa observatory.

Waterfall outside our bedroom window

It was raining by the time we got to the cable car, but we didn’t care. All we cared about was seeing the wild Miyajima Snow Monkeys that hang out at the Mt. Misen observatory.

To get to Mt. Misen, the highest point on Miyajima, you have to hike about 30 minutes from the Shishiiwa station.

View from the cable car on way up to Shishiiwa station

View from Shishiiwa Station

You have been warned!

Sign just outside the door at Shishiiwa station

We checked out the cloudy view from Shishiiwa’s lookout points, then made our way up the path to Mt. Misen. About 20 minutes into the hike we arrived at some temples that are realated to Kobo Daishi, a great Buddhist priest.

At the top of Mt. Misen it was clear enough to see that the views would be stunning, if it wasn’t so hazy…. And it was certainly clear enough to see that there were no monkeys. We decided to step into the only building at the top, a small shack that had a hand written sign that said in english, “here is a restaurant”. With time to kill, we decided to wait for a little while to see if the monkeys would show.

You can see the Shishiiwa station from the Mt. Misen Observatory

"Here is a restaurant"

We polished off our drinks and figured we could kill a few more minutes if the kids had ice cream. After I bought the ice cream I took my map to the vendor and pointed to where we were and asked him if the monkeys will be here today. He looked at me, laughed, then pointed at the map to Shishiiwa station and said, “monkeys Shishiiwa”. Nooooooooo!

And so began the rainy trek back to Shishiiwa station. About 5 minutes into our walk Bronwyn slipped on the wet pathway and landed with a good thump on her tailbone. She was in pain but she toughed it out and did great to make it the rest of the way down.

When we arrived back at Shishiiwa Fintan and I raced up to the observatory to find the monkeys. Nothing……. We walked back to the observatory café and ordered some tea to kill time. Maybe they were just running late today….. We checked a couple of more times then came to the conclusion that it wasn’t going to happen today. Reluctantly we headed down the stairs to catch the ropeway down, all the time checking in the trees for a glimpse of anything that resembled a monkey.

On monkey watch at Shishiiwa station

At the bottom we walked back to the Iwaso Ryokan where we had left our luggage. We loaded up on the shuttle bus. On board the shuttle I asked the driver where the Grand Miyajima Resort was. He asked if we were staying there tonight, I said yes. He started the van, drove for about 32 seconds, pulled over, turned off the engine and pointed up some stairs. “here Grand Miyajima Resort”…. Woops.

The rest of the afternoon we spent wandering around the small village, the Itsukushima Shrine and its famous O-Torri Gate which is over 16 meters tall and weighs around 60 tons.

The O-Torri gate is one of the most photographed spots in Japan.

This is a coffee shop with attitude. I like it.

The next blog will have details of our Friday night Japanese feast and the FC Tokyo match.