The Shugendo pavilion tucked in the cliff

To go up to the pavilion, you first cross the bridge in the mountain. This signifies the purification or crossing the river to the dead. In either way, you reset the past, get refreshed, come back, and live again. The round trip takes one hour and a half or more. A little kid did this; a ninety-year-old did it too. 

 

AKIYOSHIDO Cavern, the best place to stay while a typhoon is raging

A typhoon came while a tour in August was going on but fortunately it did not hit the destinations of the tour directly. It was amazing but the tour managed to escape the major impact by the typhoon and even gave us more fun when the AKIYOSHIDO cavern was visited. True, it was rainy and windy when the travelers lead by jasmine (it's me) approached the entrance to the cavern. But just five minutes. I thought we could be the first visitors of the day to the cave at 9:00 am when we reached the ticket gate but six already went into the cave on such a stormy day. But we almost occupied the vast cave, the largest limestone cave in Japan and the third in the world. 

Much more water than usual but no rain in the cave.

The cavern is the one let the water gushing out. A lot more water than any other day I have visited. The area leading to the Kurotani exit after the point where the Golden Pillar flow stone stands was particularly mythic and remarkable. More water and more adventurous yet anyone can go. See the pictures of this area below.

And major points:

Tsuwano summer festival, SAGIMAI

This is a really traditional, local, and authentic Shinto festival. Amazing to see the tradition has been handed down and alive. Many tourists come on the occasion but still it has a local atmosphere and retains its original purpose: dedicating the dance and song to the divinity. The repetitive chanting and dancing but but very soulful.

    The troop is soon coming out of the gate behind these ornamnents. 

 The procession

 Dedicating dancing

Miyajima summer festival, KANGENSAI

This year, the festival was on August 1, 2015. Depending on the tidal situation, this day-long festival falls on different days. Two days before the festival, people at ITSUKUSHIMA JINJA were busy preparing, taking advantage of the lowest tide of the day. Here are some of the very dry grounds of the shrine. A large boats consisting of three smaller ones has been prepared. A palanquin for the spirits of the divinity is ready, too.

 To the shrine

 Lanterns hanging

 And the boat