Oh Deer!

 We've spent the past several weeks getting settled into the house.  Finally, last week Thursday evening after the kids were in bed, and in between them getting up 73 times a piece for a drink, a snack, a bandaid and to discuss the upcoming election in order to avoid sleeping, I blurted out, "We are doing something this weekend.  We are going to go and see something."

I then offered to plan it all, and didn't want to tell anyone what we were doing.  

Last Saturday we awoke up (anticipated) rain.  No problem, my plans were solid "Ok in rain" plans (plus it was supposed to be clear by 11am).  We got up, got ready and were out the door by just after 9am.  The PLAN was to hop on a train, take it 20 minutes north, hop on a ferry and go visit the nearby island of Itsukushima, often called Miyajima island (Shrine island).  

How the morning ACTUALLY panned out:

I got us on the train. Headed in the wrong direction. We got off on the first stop. But..it's Saturday morning in a small town.  The next train is not scheduled to come take us BACK to where we came from for 40 minutes.  Options?  

1.  Walk.  It will take 53 minutes according to google maps.  But Google maps does account for my 4 children.  I predict 1 hour and 24 minutes.  NOPE.  

2. Taxi.  We will have to take 2, because there are that many of us.  And I have a stroller that I am not confident will fit in the trunk of any taxi.  NOPE.

3. Sit and wait for the next train.  BINGO.

I was so angry.  I was ticked at myself, and frustrated because we were on a time schedule.  We had a wedding to attend in the late afternoon.

We got on the train finally, went BACK to our starting point, hopped on the CORRECT train going the CORRECT direction and started our adventure AGAIN...an hour later.  And i'm so glad that we decided to continue with the day.  

The Wrong Train...

Waiting at an empty train station for our train in the other direction.

Playing Farkle while waiting for my mistake to be corrected.

We arrived at the correct train station, walked a short distance to the ferry port and hopped on a quick ferry to Miyajima.  PHEW.  

Immediately after arriving, we were greeted by the infamous deer that give Miyajima the nickname "Deer Island".  Holland, our resident animal whisperer was in heaven.  She ran up to and pet every single deer she could.  Keane quickly got annoyed by them trying to get in his pocket for snacks, and Cache was doing his best to stay away from them.  

We wandered up the cute street and went into a large prayer hall which was beautiful. As I was standing 

looking across the island from this hall, I thought, "I live here....wow."  It's beautiful here, guys. 

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We then walked up the hill to a Buddhist temple, and this was my favorite part of the whole day.  As we waked around we noticed all these small statues that all were wearing knit caps.  

                                                    

                                                   

I did a little bit of looking and learning and found that they are called Jizo, and they are said to be protectors of travelers, but more importantly, of children or babies who have passed away.  They protect the children until their parents can be with them.  As a way of thanking them and helping them continue to watch over the children, people knit them hats to keep them warm.  I'm not exactly sure why, but this hit me hard, and I found it really beautiful.  I also gained a new respect for these little statues that I have also seen around my own little town.

                                                    

                                                    

Something I learned during my time in South Korea, which is translating over to living here in Japan, is if I take the time to learn WHY something is the way it is, suddenly it goes from a nice thing (or sometimes even a frustrating cultural difference), to something I understand and respect.  This is what I felt with these little statues.  At first i saw funny little statues with hats.  By the time I left I had a new respect for the people and their love for their children.

                                                   

                                                   

At the entrance to many Buddhist temples is a place to wash.  Those coming to the temple will pour some water on each hand and wash them (mostly symbolically as there is no soap!), and then put a bit of water in their mouths to wash out their mouth as well.  

We also each got to ring the bell which is said to keep evil spirits away.  There was a bit of a learning curve to figuring out how to work the large log that rings the bell though :D

          

We spent the rest of our time there (which wasn't much!) walking the streets and finding new food to try.  No pictures of that because we ate it all to quickly.

We then scrambled back on to a ferry, then train, then into the car to rush home to change for the wedding.  The day was quick, but i'm really glad we decided to go!