The family's first visit to Miyajima...

... was chilly. It was in the 30's, but, fortunately, none of the gusty winds we experienced in Hiroshima on Friday. But we bundled up like we were going sledding and weathered the weather just fine, even on the ferry ride over to the Island.

The top priority for the children was to pet the free-roaming deer that Miyajima is known for. Xan started naming them, and then gave up, because there were so many. He started naming them with numbers and wished we could tag them in the ear like his great-grandpa and great-uncles do with their cattle in Illinois. Poor kid has the Type A organizational skills of his mother! We are warned to not feed the deer, even by accident. They love fabric and paper, as my mother-in-law, Peggy quickly found out.

 Peggy had her Miyajima map tucked in to the side pocket of her purse... a deer was able to sniff that out quite quickly and decided it was lunch time. Peggy didn't agree and got in to a tug-of-war match with the deer. I'm not sure who won because the sheet was pretty much torn in half.

Once the deer wrestling match was over, we were able to enjoy the rest of the island. As I always do, we ate our way through the shopping arcade as we made our way to the Shinto shrine. We tried fried fish on a stick and a steaming beef roll.

Of course we had to have the traditional portrait in front of the Torii gate.

Trying the famous Miyajima oysters

Rodney requested that I take a picture of this Miyajima buck. I think he was itching for his bow.

The 5-story pagoda

Japanese of all ages were avoiding Rodney like crazy. He's 6-feet, 3-inches and decided to dress all in black with clunky black boots. I told him to smile more so he didn't give any little Japanese kids nightmares....