Woke up early this morning to rain and fog for our day at Miyajima and Steven took us to the JR station to catch our train to Miyajimaguchi where we would catch the ferry over. When we got there we went by Anderson’s, a local bakery, where we ordered some things we weren’t totally sure what they were (I got one safety a chocolate sprinkles donut). Turns out Becky’s was like cold stuffed french toast and a filled croissant and I got something like a bagel filled with what I think was sweet red bean paste (I know sounds bad but actually wasn’t bad). We headed into the station after this and breezed past the gate (gotta love the JR Pass!) and eventually found our track, we are slowly learning the tricks to figuring out the stations but still not totally confident yet. We waited for the next train and ate half of our breakfast and the drinks we had gotten at the ever present vending machines, I think Becky learned not to get green tea.  When the train arrived we soon realized we weren’t sure how many stops we were going but luckily after looking around for a second we found the map that had the stops labeled in english. It was about a 30 minute ride or so then we got off and headed toward the JR Ferry dock which was about a 2 block walk but unfortunately it was still raining light but steadily. We braved it for the walk over and found a tunnel under one road which helped a little. Once to the station we showed our passes again and were waved to the dock where a ferry was just about to arrive. The ride over took about 5 minutes or so and all the way across you can see the famous “floating torii” getting closer and Mt. Misen behind shrouded in clouds. We got off and got a map and headed off toward the torii/shrine area which is about a 5-10 minute walk from the station and this time we donned our ponchos as it was still steadily raining (this will be a recurring theme). Saw several of the island’s native deer which are everywhere, we were told and read that they will be agressive and try to eat papers, etc but they seemed very mellow and just ignored most people it seemed. After snapping a few pictures with the tide in (so the torii appears to be floating) we headed through the shrine and even saw a traditional japanese wedding pass by in the shrine itself. When we left the shrine we decided to head up to Mt. Misen via the ropeway so we had to go up the hill a little to get to the station. We decided to buy a one way ticket up, which we later might have regretted but in the end it was worth it. We rode up the first ropeway and then changed to the second and headed to the top. What we didn’t realize was that the 1 km walk to the summit was basically a trail going up stairs almost the entire way. Once at the summit we did have some beautiful views of the entire area in all directions but there was so much fog we didn’t take many pictures from up there. On the way up you passed several small shrines and some larger ones including one with an eternal flame but I think it must have been shut up at the time we passed because I didn’t see it. Several things were closed through the morning I noticed not sure if it was the weather or just ealier than they open. After reaching the summit we had a few options to get down and knowing Becky’s knee had been bothering her lately we discussed going back down the ropeway at the last crossroads before heading down the walking path back to the Daishoin temple which was an hour walk back down the mountain. Becky decided she would be ok to walk so we headed down, btw still raining. We had a couple of slips on the stairs (which 90% of the trail was made of) but no major injuries only hurt pride and soreness for both of us. We were fairly exhausted by the time we got down but personally I am proud we made it all the way up and back down. We headed into the Daishoin temple which is a Buddhist temple on the island (the other main shrine is Shinto) and we looked around a little in a couple of the temple buildings then headed down a different path than the main stairs which was a path of 500 Raken statues which was pretty neat as each statue supposedly has a different expression. Then we headed to the 5 story pagoda on the island and after this it was about 1pm and we were famished so we headed back to the shopping area to get okonomayaki, a noodle, cabbage, egg dish that this area is famous for. We walked through until we saw a restaurant that sold okonomayaki and we headed in and ordered. I got one with shrimp and cheese and Becky for one with scallops and I also ordered us some grilled scallops for an appetizer. The scallops were interesting in that they were whole scallops not just the white meaty part and this made them a little chewy to my taste. I loved the okonomayaki though and am definitely going to attempt to recreate it (or hope that Shogun starts making it someday). I think Becky was less impressed but she was hungry enough to eat most of it. We then walked back to the torii which was on dry land now as the tide had gone out so we walked right out to it and took a few pictures. This was about the end of our energy so we headed back to the ferry and then to the train to head back to Iwakuni. At the station I got a hot chocolate in a can from a vending machine and it was pretty good! We headed back to the house to get dried off and changed so we could go with Leah and Zach to eat dinner at a local Indian restaurant called Ganesh which was really good (no Mrs. Lahiri by any means but good). After that we headed back to the house to do laundry and prepare for our day in Hiroshima on Tuesday.