Miyajima - Mount Misen

Our morning in Miyajima kicked off with a quick playground/deer petting walk outside with the kids, followed by a nice Western breakfast at our Ryokan. Jacob decided that he wanted a deer as a pet. (We may have to consider it, but only if once he is old enough to walk him!)

Our activity of the day was taking the scenic Ropeway Cable Car up Mount Misen where we could watch the native monkeys, check out the views of the surrounding islands in the Seto Island Sea, and hike in the surrounding park.

It is a great view from the top, and although a bit overcast, we could still see all the way across to Shikoku Island.

As for the monkeys, we were warned to put our bags in lockers at the ropeway station; or else "the monkeys will take it." We did. But they seemed pretty cute to us.

Although we weren't quite up to a hike all the way up to the top of Mt. Misen with the kids, we did a nice little family hike and then passed the time watching an entire school (maybe 150) of Japanese high school girls in matching green outfits hike on past us up to the peak. These kids had not taken the cable car; rather they were hiking all the way from Momijidani Park at the base of the mountain all the way to the peak (quite a good hike). Our kids greeted each passing wave of the "green team" with a hearty konichi wa, which was enthusiastically returned with shrieks of kawaii. The whole scene was quite humorous.

After a nice day up on Mount Misen, we took the Ropeway back down, had some lunch, and grabbed our last couple of fried momiji manjus, before taking the ferry back to the mainland.

We were back home on Rokko Island by 5 PM. We grabbed some Subway sandwitches and some supermarket sushi rolls, and spent the rest of the day playing out near the fountains.