November 19, 2009Sarah

Tango Discovery

Day 6 of 9 Days (Thursday) – Kyoto (京都) – Miyazu (宮津) Amanohashidate（天橋立）  – Kinosaki Onsen (城崎温泉)

We bid farewell to Sakura Ryokan and…

this sign which greets us every morning:( We’ve not figured out what’s “Bone Hall” (literally in Chinese Character) means as Japanese Kanji may have another meaning though usually not too far off from Chinese. Could it be a prayer hall for ash urns? Ok, never mind, it’s not important.

First we need to find Inoda’s Coffee at the Kyoto Train Station.

We order a breakfast sandwich set as we have a long day ahead. Though we are tea drinker, the coffee is good.

We are taking Limited Express Hashidate that goes directly to Amanohashidate (天橋立) from Kyoto. As it takes about two hours, we pack some drinks and tidbits for the trip.

Amanohashidate (天橋立) is a 3.6 kilometer long and between 20m to 170m wide, 8,000 pine trees covered sandbar, spanning across Miyazu Bay on the Tango Peninsula (丹後半島 or Tango Hanto) in northern Kyoto Prefecture.

From the train station, we take a bus to the northern end of the sandbar for the cable car station. We are going up to Kasamatsu Koen (傘松公園), which is halfway up Mt Nariai.

The sandbar is best viewed from the hills on either side of the bay, which are both accessible by chair lift or cable car.

Amanohashidate (天橋立) means “bridge to heaven”, which is one of the 3 Japan’s most scenic views (nihon sankei) along with Matsushima (松島) in Miyagi Prefecture and Miyajima (宮島) in Hiroshima Prefecture. We will complete our tour of 3 most scenic views in Japan. At the Kasamatsu Park, we have a breathtaking view of Amanohashidate!

To view the sandbar as a “bridge to heaven”, turn your back towards the bay, bend over and look at it from between your legs.

This is the view of Amanohashidate when we look at it upside down between our legs. The sandbar appears like a bridge suspended in the air.

Wow, it is indeed a bridge to heaven. On the other side of the park, we have a splendid view of Sea of Japan!

It’s so awesome!

We take a cable car down Mt Nariai and past Nariaiji Temple (成相寺).

We walk a short distance to a pier at Ichinomiya Station. Instead of walking on the sandbar, we want to conserve energy by taking a boat ride to the southern end.

The boat ride offers another view of the sandbar which is covered with many pine trees.

We alight at the southern end at Monju（文殊) next to Chionji (智恩寺).

Within the temple grounds, there are some stalls, including one selling fresh mushrooms.

Meow…neko

We come out from Chionji ‘s main entrance (山門) into the main shopping area.

We want to walk on the sandbar.

First we need to cross the Kaisenkyo bridge (廻旋橋). However, as a cargo boat moves towards the bridge…

the bridge split into half. An old man is in charge of this mechanism.

We wait for a while after the boat move away.

We cross another bridge towards the sandbar.

And on our way to the sandbar. It’s pine trees and sand.

We walk back to the Monju (文殊) where a group of tourists are trying to throw coins through Chienootourou (智恵の輪灯籠) which literally means the lantern of wisdom wheel, to get more wisdom. They do need some wisdom 😛

We walk to a teahouse, Kanshichi-chaya (勘七茶屋) to fill our stomach with wisdom instead.

We are eating Chie-no-mochi (知恵の餅) or literally “Rice cake of Wisdom”, which is actually a huge slap of red bean paste over a piece of rice cake. It’s not sweet and quite filling.

There’s nothing interesting to eat or shops to visit here. We leave this place for the train station.

It’s 2plus in the afternoon and too early for our train. So we visit this Chienoyu onsen (知恵の湯) from the outside.

The train station is not crowded. But we have to buy a ticket to Kinosaki Onsen because we are taking Kitakinki Tango Railway (北近畿タンゴ鉄道), a private train not a JR train.

It’s Tango Discovery! It moves along the rustic Tango Peninsula facing the Sea of Japan. There seems to be some history to this place but we have limited information. Hope to visit some day when we are tired of cities 😛

Finally we reach Kinosaki after about 2 hour ride on the slow train.

Kinosaki Onsen (城崎温泉) is located in northern Hyogo Prefecture on the coast of the Sea of Japan.

Now is the season for zuwai-gani (松葉蟹 or snow crab) especially in this region.

We finally find our ryokan, Kinosaki no Yado Ryokufukaku (きのさきの宿 緑風閣) which is a short walk from the train station. The floor is tatami everywhere, so we don’t need to wear any slippers 🙂 And it has 350 yukata for us (women only) to choose from. So nice.

We are very excited to visit the many public bath since we are given 5 coupons for free entry! But first, we need to change into our yukata and we wear our coat as rather windy in the evening.

When we are about to step out, the female staff looks EXTREMELY SHOCKED at us. She quickly drags us to a corner and help us to wear our yukata probably. Yes, initially we were wondering how come we need 2 belts for the yukata. Then we realize how to tie them after she teaches us. This is quite different from the usual one we normally wear with a belt.

Arm with a map together with our towels and coupons, we set off in our yukata and geta (wooden clogs).

Kinosaki Onsen is a pleasant town, built along a willow lined river. It is one of the top onsen destinations of the Kansai Region.

Our first stop is Jizoyu (地蔵湯), which is very crowded.

Hot springs were discovered in Kinosaki around the 8th century and since then the town has developed into a charmingly old-fashioned onsen town. There’re shopping along the street but most are closed at this hour.

In the evening, we could see other guests of the local ryokan stroll about town in yukata and geta (wooden clogs), visiting the many public baths. Right in front of us is a caucasian family.

We pass a source of natural hot spring.

Our second public bath of the day is Ichinoyu (一の湯).

Third public bath Goshonoyu (御所の湯) is closed! We’ll come tomorrow morning then.

This is the ryokan where JT stayed many years ago. JT recommended to us to visit Kinosaki Onsen as it’s an interesting onsen town. Really thanks to her that we’re enjoying this experience.

Kounoyu (鴻(こう)の湯) is the first bath in Kinosaki and there’s a legend behind it. When we reach our third public bath, we notice the caucasian family who were walking ahead of us earlier have finished their bath. They could have skipped Inochiyu.

As we have booked dinner at 7pm, we have to stop onsen-hopping after this. The streets are quiet.

No one is strolling. Probably all are eating their dinner now. On our way, we are getting hungry as we calculated that we have walked for more than 3km (to and fro) onsen-hopping.

Our dinner is ready! It’s Crab Feast! We have wanted to try zuwai-gani (松葉蟹 or snow crab) especially during this period! The crab is so sweet! Overdose of cholesterol.

After the sumptuous crab feast, we rest till 9pm. We are amused with the thought of walking 1km in a lonely street. But we want to try as many public baths as possible. While we are joking that the street belong to us, we see a couple in front of us! haha

We come to Mandarayu (まんだら湯), which is in a reclusive corner. In the cold autumn night, we are warm after going to the onsen.

At the road side vending machine, we buy a can of hot milk. This is a simple pleasure in life. A hot bath followed by a can of hot milk.

We enjoy our hot milk sitting at Goshonoyu’s public area. Opposite the narrow street is a shop, which just opens at 10pm!!! We go in to browse since we do not carry much moolah 😛

There are some shops and nostalgic game arcade that only open at this hour. My goodness, such interesting place to hang out with a group of friends!

Back at our ryokan, we go to the onsen in our ryokan. Hahaha, it’s more exclusive. We are happy and warm, sleep well and soundly.

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