Continued from Miyajima Part 1.

On my God!!! That moss roof looks heavenly. It looks so soft and plush!! I want to roll around in it.

What’s going on?

Oh, seems like a newly wed couple came here to pray. We saw this newly wed again later tonight stroll around romantically. How nice to be newly wed….oh wait, that’s us too!!

Penis and balls.

Sake as offering for the shrine.

Cartons of soy sauce is also offered…I prefer sake.

Of course, wouldn’t be complete if some section wasn’t under renovation.

That’s that for the shrine. It’s really a pretty simple shrine.

Miyajima is really picturesque though. It feels peaceful out here.

Don’t judge me because I am laying in piles of my own filth.

More moss on the roof. Love.

KL points. This how my dog stretches, right before he farts. Seriously.

So much moss, so much love. RL and I are united through our love for moss.

We are STARVING. Even though we’ve got dinner at our ryokan in about 3 hours, we are so hungry that we need some food NOW!

Can you tell that RL is excited to eat her noodles?

Slurp slurp slurp.

Egg and fried pork over rice…This is actually the best thing I’ve eaten on this entire trip. No joke. Just the right combination of hunger, beautiful environment, and the right kind of comfort food. Seriously, we both ate our meal in silence we were enjoying it so much. I’m going to remember this meal for months…or maybe even years. Ohhh, it was sooo goooood!!!!

Yeah, lick my chest hair.

Time to head back towards our ryokan to chill out until dinner time.

But first, some ice cream. I don’t know how I am going to be able to eat dinner in 3 hours…

Green tea soft serve. Divine.

These maple leave shaped cakes with fillings are local to this area and all the shops around here sell them. We brought a few to try.

They also have naughty sake cups here as well. Too bad we don’t have much room left in our luggage to carry more stuff back home.

The machine that makes the maple leaf cakes.

Right next to our ryokan is a small grocery store, we’ll stock up a little.

Giving the maple leaf cake a try. Surprisingly good!

Then in no time, it’s 7pm and time for our Kaiseki, traditional multi course Japanese meal. This meal and the Japanese bath are the two quintessential ryokan experiences.

The dining area also looks out onto the small garden.

Got some sake, seems like to right thing to do for this meal.

Sooo good. The wasabi was actual the real grated wasabi too!

Tofu mixed with other vegetables.

We got a bowl of raw ground and seasoned chicken. We were shown that we use the spoon to make little meatballs to cook in our soy milk based hotpot.

More fish.

This was actually the best part of the meal. We got pieces of beef, and it was some of the most delicious cuts of meat we’ve ever had. Melts in your mouth, and it wasn’t even Kobe beef(we asked). I am going to remember this beef about as long as I remember my rice bowl from 3 hours ago, a long long time.

Mandarin flavored ice cream to finish up the meal. That meal was delicious and fun. Ahhhhh, so happy.

Now that it’s dark, we wanted to get some photos of the torii gate and the shrine lit up at night.

Saw this crab walking around in the middle of the road.

I hope it doesn’t get stepped on.

Totoro, minus Totoro and rain and umbrella and bus stop sign and Japanese girl. You get the idea.

It’s low tide, we can walk out to the gate.

The lighting for the shrine isn’t as good, so this is the only photo I took of it.

RL says that I look like a complete creeper in this photo.

The posts are covered with barnacles and coins that people have put on them.

There are also many coins that have fallen down at the base of the posts.

RL being…RL.

OK, time to head back to our ryokan and take a Japanese bath!

Of course, we changed into our yukata(a casual kimono) before taking our baths.

Our ryokan has private baths so that families can take baths together. Usually, the baths are public, with one bath for males and one for females.

The water is from a hot spring, and it fills the whole tub continuously. We are supposed to keep that tub filled and overflowing the whole time we are bathing so that it’s always fresh water.

Before getting into the tub, we are supposed to shower.

Aaahhhh. The water was very very hot, and we couldn’t stand being inside for too long. Felt very nice and relaxing though.

Hot and relaxed from the bath.

Look at how low the doorways are. I can hit my head on it.

Me and my samurai sword(pocket knife). You ever watch samurai movies where they take off a sleeve so that it doesn’t restrict them swinging their blade? Not clearly shown, but RL also tied a top knot for me.

After our bath, it’s time for some hot green tea.

And…time to watch this. We wanted to watch this in the movie theaters here in Japan, but for some reason, it doesn’t get released until July in Japan, a couple of months after many other countries. Too bad the movie was only ok…

But seriously, what an awesome day full of quintessential traditional Japanese experiences!!

To be continued at Hiroshima Day 1.