August 13th - Island Shrine of Itsukushima - Culture

When we woke up from the hotel in Hiroshima we had already visited the memorial so we then needed to know if we should go back to Tokyo or go to another place in Hiroshima. Shamyl started to look for places on his phone when he woke up and found a place called Itsukushima Island. The website said that this was a very significant place for the Shinto religion which is a religion in Japan that believes in the worship of ancestors and that life is all around us in everything. It is a Shinto shrine on the island of Isukushima which is why the name is why it is. It's best known for its "floating" torii gate which is in the water and coming out from it. During ancient times many people thought that it  was impossible to build things up from the sea so that's why it is deemed floating. The island is located in the city of Hatsukaichi in the Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. That was all that the site said and so Shamyl went and woke us all up. Mohir was to tired to get up so Shamyl woke him up with a water bottle by pouring it on him. It didn't take us long to get ready and it didn't take long till we were in the car. We googled the directions and we were on our way. Once we arrived at Hatsukaichi we took a boat tp the shrine and got on Itsukushima Island it was a very congested with trees and so we had to ask the man who took us to the island to help us. He accepted and we were on our way, Once we arrived the man said that he had to go because his boat was still on the island and that someone else could have helped us. The new man that we found told us more about it like how the shrine was designed and built on pier like structures over the bay so that it would appear to be floating on the water separate from the sacred island which could be approached by the devout. This fascinated all of us except for Mohir who was playing Clash Royal on his phone the whole time. When we followed the man to the sacred chief shrine for the Shinto religion it kept getting more and more crowded. Mohir ended up bumping into someone which made him ask why it got so populated all of a sudden to which the man answered that the shrine is one of Japan's most popular tourist attractions and is classified as one of the 3 views of Japan. We then finally got to the edge of the building and probably for 10 minutes looked around,even Mohir. Chase asked if we could get a boat ride so we could get even closer but the man said that since we were just tourists and didn't even practice the Shinto religion that we couldn't since it was a sacred sight. Later we were getting tired and decided to go home, when we were on the boat on the way back we saw a fish after Kush turned on the flashlight on his phone. We eventually got back to the car and had to drive all the way to Awa to get there in time for the Awa Odori festival. We all took turns driving like always and that was the end of our day.