Takamatsu and Shodoshima

This weekend I visited a friend in Takamatsu on the island of Shikoku.

Sun Port; Takamatsu

Takamatsu (pronounced with the “u” dropped; “Takamatss”) is the capital of the Kagawa prefecture and probably most well-known for Ritsurin Park. We didn’t make it to the park, but we did get to see a monkey island.  And hey, monkeys.  MONKEYS.

Our first day was spent on Shodoshima, a small island about 30 minutes by ferry from Takamatsu’s Sun Port.

Awwww *how precious!*

The majority of our stay there consisted of running amok with monkeys at the open “Monkey Park”. Without knowing exactly what to expect, we headed in. Literally three or four feet in front of us were a group of monkeys lounging in the sun and grooming each other (I scared them into a stampede because I squealed so loud).  Further exploration showed us even more monkeys, sometimes getting so close that they would rub against your pant legs.  It was awesome and terrifying (visions of “The Hot Zone” danced through my brain, oh how they danced.)

After the monkey park, we spent a good deal of time wandering down the mountain, looking at the gorgeous fall scenery and trying to find a huge statue that we had noticed when coming up the mountain.

She's huge, I swear

After a couple of hours of looking (read: three or four hours) we eventually found it.  One of my students tells me that the statue is an image of a Buddhist “goddess” of love. The scale is hard to catch, but she was huge.

That’s why we roamed around for hours looking – the scale.  At least that’s what I’m saying, not because neither I nor my friend have any sense of direction and spatial reasoning.  At any rate, as we trudged doggedly back to the ferry port (we really should have been hauling ass as it was going to leave us stranded there all night) a kindly driver picked us up and dropped us off.  We tried to ply him with money, but he refused.  Arigato goziamas stranger!

I was able to catch several more shots of the amazing fall scenery:

It almost made me cry

...

Miyajima

Miyajima – my first foray outside of Tokuyama.

Torii at high-tide

It was neat to see some different Japanese architecture as well as listening to some of the mythologies surrounding the island. One student of mine was particularly adamant about couples not going there, as the goddess of the island is extremely jealous of lovers, and so conspires to break them up within 6 months of visiting. Let’s cross our fingers, eh?  The actual site itself is an island about 40 minutes from the mainland.

After a 2 hour train ride from Tokuyama to Miyajima-guchi, we caught a ferry and were off. One of the first things that I noticed was that the vast majority of the tourists there were Japanese. Sure, there was the odd gaijin, but not very many. Apparently, in Japan, many families and married couples take day and weekend trips to shrines and other areas of interest. I think this is terribly cool.

At any rate, all around the island, deer follow you. The deer are allowed to roam free, though the aggressive ones are killed and used as souvenirs. No joke!  The deer are considered to be the holy messengers of the island.

We did make it to the island at the perfect time when all of the trees were at their most beautiful. The Japanese maples were stunning – the pictures hardly do them any justice.

Awesome.

The Vermillion Pagoda is probably second most easily recognizable feature on Miyajima (the first being the huge, aquatic torii) and for reasons that these pictures show.  I got a little gaga eyed retarded over the structure.

Stunning architecture

Love this photo. LOVE.

The shrine and torii (see previous post about torii) are considered so sacred that they cannot be placed on normal soil, and so are covered with water half of the day. Unfortunately, we were hiking up the sacred mountain while the water was at high tide, so I only have one photo of that. You can see how the shrine is built on stilts to facilitate the water movement.

Sunset gate

Spectacular colour!

After the trip, we made it back to the mainland and had a Hiroshima specialty, okonomiyaki. A filling, delicious combination of cabbage, seafood, veggies, noodles and a wonderful brown okonimi sauce. After that, it was sleeping on the train and home again.