Golden Week Road Trip 08'-Day 2

Pictures speak louder than words. So it is better to let them do the storytelling. The next day, we woke up late beyond our scheduled time to depart for Miyajima. Ashraf and Ari already up early so they got the chance to snap a few pictures around the spiral Ondo bridge near our ryokan (will definitely upload pics from Ari's Canon once I got it). Breakfast is just Maggi Kari and Bread with serunding (spicy minced meat) at the ryokan's dining room. Oba'san had kindly prepared for us delicious onigiris (rice ball) and in return of her kind gesture, we gave a packet of serunding to her as a souvenir.

On the way to Miyajima, we stopped by at the Alley KarasuKojima which is the naval base for Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces (under JSDF). At first, I am quite amazed in deep curiosity on why did the naval base is so vulnerable with no sign of restricted area whatsoever like we have at ATM bases in Lumut or MINDEF. You can just cross the road from a convenient store near there and swim a mere 150 metres to climb the submarine sail, and it is not just one of them but seven functional submarines in a row. But after a simple explanation from Ashraf that I should try to google all this thing on the net before writing about it, I began to know from my reading that after the WW2 where Japan has been occupied by the US-led allied forces, Japan has never developed its own army since then. All the social clubs, schools like RMC, martial skills related to the army, army ministries and army officials were abolished. Industries serving the army were also dismantled. Policy have also been formulated by the parliament opposing any kind of rearmament and the civilians were in total control of the army. Even the JSDF personnel are all civilians with no military secrets, military laws and all were under the jurisdiction of the civil court of law. So, for defense purposes, Japan is currently relying mainly on US military and this is in a way a very rare situation reflecting to the sovereignty of Japan as a country but enough to keep Japan from spending billions to rebuild its own army. Interesting isn't it?

The route to Miyajima was long and congested. The traffic was heavy especially when everyone is using the same route towards the same direction. After modifying the recommended route by the GPS navi, we managed to escape the hassle an arrived to Miyajimaguchi ferry terminal by utilizing an unpopular route.

Miyajima, like Amanohashidate (Please refer my post March 08:Living on Hope) is also listed in the three scenic views of Japan (日本三景, Nihon sankei). It was low tide time when we arrived to Miyajima so everyone could walk to the so-called floating torii (gate). It was not that scenic at that time but I am pretty optimist that the high tide later in the evening will definitely turn the place into what it is narrated as. To kill the time, we had lunch at a restaurant serving Miyajima's renowned oyster and seafood, walk along the Momijidani Park path towards the ropeway station and take a ride up to Mt. Misen, the highest peak in Hiroshima.

The quote for today comes from Ashraf and it is "Ada gambaq?" (The whole story must be classified private and confidential until the whole episode of 'the spark' being revealed. This is in order to care for the sensitivity of the parties involved..hihihi).

Here are some of the pictures captured during the high tide later that evening. I finally saw the scenic part of Miyajima. Fantastic and mesmerizing.

We wrapped our day visit to Miyajima and continue our way to the next destination for the third day of our road trip which is the Naruto Straits near Tokushima and Awaji Island. On the way there, we planned to cross the gigantic Seto Ohashi Bridge connecting Okayama and Kagawa prefecture and play some fireworks. In our hearts, we knew that tomorrow is promising but the nearer we are to Kansai, the bigger we felt that this road trip is nearly to an end.