Megijima

On July 5th, we headed to Megijima. The island can be seen from Takamatsu, as seen in this picture taken from the port.

Megijima is seen in the background

When arriving at Megijima you are greeted by the Oni statue.







Megijima is the scene of a Japanese folk tale about a boy named Momotaro. He, along with a dog, monkey and pheasant, rid the island of the Oni which lived in a cave. Many people believe this to be the site of that story and refer to the island as Onigashima. Oni literally translates into demon, but I have seen translations of the story that call them ogres.

The first thing on our list was to reach the top of this peak where there is a statue of Nichiren. He was a founder of a sect of Buddhism, who lived in the 11th century.

We rented bicycles and headed up the mountain. Sometimes we were able to peddle, sometimes it was too steep and we had to walk the bikes up the winding road to the top.

 A view of Takamatsu from part way up the moutain.

After about 45 minutes or so, we reached the top and got an up close look at the statue.

From up here there is a good view of the Seto inland sea.

 The next thing we wanted to do was reach the peak you see here. This is where there is the Oni cave and an observation deck.
Another 45 minutes or so later, and we reached the Oni cave.

We continued on to the observation deck. From here, with the help of a 250 mm telephoto lens, we could see the full statue of Nichiren.

We also got a nice view of Takamatsu...

...and a panoramic view of the Seto inland sea.

Again with the help of the telephoto lens, I was able to get a photograph of part of the Seto Ohashi. It's total length is 8.1 miles.

We then headed down the mountain. It took about 1 1/2 hours up, and about 7 minutes to get down, and two pairs of brake pads.

We traveled around the island and made it to the Moai statue, which is the type of statue found on Easter Island. A crane company in Japan had the statue made for it to do some testing before heading to Easter Island to assist with restoration projects.

We made the loop around the island and back to the port. It was time to say goodbye to this sleepy fishing village, and head off to our next adventure... Ogijima...