Oh Deer..

Not far from Hiroshima you can catch a ferry to Miyojima Island.  I had read that there was a community of deer living on the island but when I read notices at the hostel in Hiroshima warning tourists to protect their train passes, I was intrigued.

“Japan Rail Passes are non-refundable and cannot be replaced.  Please do not let your pass be eaten by a deer (this has happened!)”

When we got off the ferry, we soon found out what the sign was all about.  There were deer waiting for people coming out of the ferry terminal and as soon as you got close they were sniffing you over to see if there was anything interesting in your pockets or bag.

There are signs everywhere saying not to feed the deer as they get sick from not grazing properly – which they’re obviously not doing.  Within our first 10 minutes on the island, we saw a deer trying to get into a plastic bag that had had a sushi lunch in it.  He gave up trying and just started eating the whole thing – plastic bag, plastic box, chopsticks – everything!  I attempted to wrestle it off him and he was not happy!  Luckily they’re not that big, as he wasn’t backward in having a go at me.

A little way down the road, we found another couple of deer breaking into a pannier on someone’s bike.  They had already opened all the flaps that had been buttoned down and were now working on the zip.  After a few minutes of patient nudging they were in – and scoffing biscuits!  Only problem was the biscuits were individually wrapped in foil packs and they were eating the foil
as well.  It’s no wonder they all look a little bit mangy and sick.

Miyojima is a big tourist destination for the Japanese so it was pretty busy but the weather was beautiful.  There’s a shopping street, various temples and the famous red gate that stands in the water offshore.

There’s also a mountain you can hike up (or if you’re sensible take the cable car).  Typically Paul wanted to just go up a “little” way to have a look.  Turns out it was steps all the way and by the time we’d been going about half an hour, the girls and I rebelled and refused to go any further.  Paul, of course, insisted it wasn’t much further to the top and that he was going to keep going.  So we parted company – us girls to the shopping street and the boys up the mountain.

2 1/2 hours later, they turned up having discovered that we had been nowhere near the top and they had walked up another 2km of steps before getting the cable car down. 

Us girls had obviously made the right decision as we wondered through the tourists – many of whom had little dressed up doggies and we sat and had a nice drink and some M&M’s.  That was of course until the deer realised we had food…