Day 9 - Around Miyajima

On our second day in Miyajima we went to the beach (wow, there's a beach for swimming in Japan!). There weren't so many people but all the bikini wearing persons seemed to be European tourists. The Asian looking persons all wore wettie-like bathing shirts and pants. We were happy that there was a beach at all, because swimming in public places is not customary in Japan. The reason we went to the beach was that our O' torii visit made us sweat so much. It was low tide again and possible to walk to the toriii over the sea ground. It's interesting to see that in this religion, there is not a special bucket where you put your donations or money sacrifices in - you can stick it instead into every crack you see on the torii (or you throw a coin into special tin boxes - they more it clings, the better the gods will hear you).
I love this vermillion colour, in which every Shinto temple is painted and which actually looks very attractive.

The O' torii by low tide

In the evening we went to one of the very few restaurants that don't close after 5 p.m. Most tourists only stay for a day trip and do not sleep here because the hotels are quite expensive. However, we went for the first time to a really small restaurant, like a pub with a bar, where only ten people fit in and you could watch your food getting made by an elderly woman and her (probably) daughter. They were cooking the local Hiroshima dish okonomiyaki on a teppanyaki cooker. Okonomiyaki is basically a thin egg pancake with cabbage, noodles, some pork and other ingredients, just the way you order it. Final topping barbecue sauce and shallots. (First restaurant in which I didn't freeze)

The hot metal teppanyaki cooker

Our Hiroshima dish

What I learned? The smaller the restaurant, the more memorable the experience.