I’m running late, I seem to have forgotten all my Japanese and I’m lost. Well, not exactly lost, but I can’t find the place I’m supposed to meet B and Alex. I found it yesterday my mistake. Repeating that mistake is proving difficult.
To cap it all off I can’t seem to get a signal for my phone and a couple of Japanese friends are trying to organise a meet up tomorrow.
I find Vie de France but the rest of the family is gone. Back and forth. To the hotel. Out of the hotel. Finally to Yodobashi Camera where I succeeded in purchasing the laptop this morning.
It’s lunchtime already and we wanted to be travelling earlier than this. The choices, to Takamatsu’s garden, to Tottori’s snowbound sand dunes, to the hot baths of Kinosaki Onsen or somewhere we’ve never been before.
Somewhere we’ve never been before wins and we are on the train bound for Fukuchiyama and Amanohashidate with only Seven-Eleven sandwiches for lunch.
Last time we were together on a Limited Express Kounotori we forgot lunch and had to race out to a platform kiosk to buy sandwiches midway.
There is some pleasant river scenery, but the hills will look better once winter is over.
Today we just get out at Fukuchiyama. Our Wide Area Rail pass allows us passage on the private Kyoto-Tango Line.
My day is made when the attractively custom design Limited Express Hashidate operated by a KTR8000 set. With colourful seating and a wooden interior I wouldn’t be surprised to see this train running in Kyushu. Indeed Don Design has been involved with such projects.
It’s an attractive line full of hills and tunnels. We change direction at the Miyazu Y-junction. Then there are views of of the sea as we approach Amanohashidate.
The town is famous for the pine covered sandbar that separates a lake (Aso “Sea”) from Miyazu Bay, named as one of the top three sights in Japan.
The tourist office helpfully provides us with a map and directions.
We first make our way to the chairlift and monorail up to Amanohashidate View World. The individual chairs lack restraints and the upper slopes look very steep, but we risk it.
(Actually, the chairs are slow and the gap between them and the ground is short, so there’s not much risk!)
The views are amazing, though we have to twist around to see them. It’s also cold and we are underdressed. Snow is visible on some of the surrounding peaks and seems to be falling off to sea.
At the top is a small amusement park with a ferris wheel, train, pedal train and other rides, though none seem to be in operation. Everyone is just up there for the views. One of those is called “Matanozoki” where you look with your head upside down between your legs making the sandbar appear as if a bridge in the sky.
I catch the precarious looking monorail down, while the others return on the chair lift, both of us arriving together. I recommend doing it in reverse.
From there we walk to the boat dock and hire bicycles, choosing the speedboat option back rather than the regular sightseeing boat.
The sandbar is about two kilometres and an easy stroll or ride. It’s very calming, riding under the pines, the waters of Miyazu Bay lapping against the sand. We stop several times to admire the view and soak in the atmosphere.
Once on the other side we stop again to drink canned hot corn soup and hot chocolate from a vending machine, before returning our bikes at the boat quay. There’s enough time for a quick wander around and trip to the supermarket, but not enough for the cable car/chairlift up to Kasamatsu Park for the Flying Dragon view of the sandbar.
We are the only passengers on the speedboat, which has a big fan attached to the rear. I’m not sure if it was just decorative, but it certainly looked spectacular. B and Alex sat up the front, heads exposed to the wind, while I rode in the cabin. It was great fun!
Sadly there was no time to eat in the town, which was shutting up for the day anyway, nor to take a soak in the hot baths near the station. We joined the end of the queue of mostly Asian tourists at the station.
Another beautiful wooden KTR8000 set tooks us back in the dark to Fukuchiyama where we thankfully separated from most of the tourists headed for Kyoto. A different Kounotori service returns us to Osaka, where we change to the Midosuji Subway line for Shinsaibashi.
I’ve grown to loathe this colourful tourist nightmare shopping arcade. We wait in a cold line at Torisoba Zagin Niboshi, a ramen restaurant that adds chicken and sardines to its tonkotsu soup stock. It is really good.
By the time we are out the shops are closing and it’s time to return to the hotel.