So far, Miyajima Island has been my absolute favourite place.  Chris and I saw MONKEYS!  Real live wild ones, only metres away from us and they were everywhere up the mountain! 

MONKEYS!


We also saw wild deer, the famous Miyajima Island shrine, went on a very long and high cable car ride up the mountain and "hiked" the mountain to the top (Chris said it was only "walking" but it was definately hiking for me). 

The mountain hiking/walking was strenuous and exhausting but very worth the effort.  At the top there were a few different shrines and a fantastic view (and more monkeys).

One of the shrines at the top of the mountain...


There was also a board with different wooden carving pictures that you could write on the back of and hang up for 500Yen ($5).  So I got one and wrote on it because I felt proud to have come so far (never mind the Japanese girl in front of us was doing it in stilletos and was faster than me).


Can you see ours?


This is a funny sign we saw just before going up the mountain...


To initially get up the mountain we took 2 cable cars.  This was the second one.  They were both a bit different from each other.  This cable car ride was much much shorter and took a lot more people.  Coming down the mountain there were at least 20 people in our car which was a little scary (mostly standing).


Before going up the mountain we wandered around the island a bit.

This is us at the famous shrine.  The tide was low so we were able to walk out to it which was pretty cool.


Chris was feeling a bit cold so he got a hot drink from a vending machine.  Yes, that is a can, a HOT can.  Mmmm tasty Original (thats the only English on the can).


Just resting....by the wild deer....