O-torii

A tori is the gateway to a Shinto shrine. At Miyajima, the tori rises up from the sea, showing that the entire island is a holy place.

We arrived in Hiroshima by shinkansen this morning and travelled to our hostel, which overlooks the ferry port to the island. After a quick visit to a bakery, we boarded the ferry for the 10 minute crossing. (It felt like going on holiday.. memories of all those summer trips to Scottish Islands!) The tori was bright red in the sunshine then, and after taking loads of photos, Luke and I headed up to the top of Mt Misen, the sacred mountain. Most of our journey was by a thrilling cable car ride, and then we walked back down through virgin forest alive with bird calls. There are monkeys living there, but we didn't see any, only plenty of deer.

As sometimes happens, I wasn't happy with any of my photos, so I left Luke at the hostel and went back on the ferry for the sunset. It was worth the effort.