I’ve been monitoring the weather to ensure that our day trip
(2 hour train ride away) to the beach would be a nice sunny day, not primarily
because a Beach Day needs to be sunny, but mostly because the beach we were
going to is famous for its views. Needless
to say I was quite disheartened when the partly sunny forecast I’d been
monitoring suddenly changed to rain yesterday afternoon. Our days left in Japan are numbered, so there
were no alternative days left in our itinerary.
So, this morning, armed with umbrellas, we headed off to the beach.
The views along the long train ride were quite beautiful. We
went over bridges spanning deep, narrow canyons, through hillside tunnels, and
past green, rice paddies to arrive at Miyazu Bay on the Sea of Japan in the town of
Amanohashidate… in the rain.
First we went up the cable car to see the view. Fortunately the cloud cover wasn’t too bad;
we could still see the sandbar and bay. Part
of the “tradition” in Amanohashidate (which means “Bridge in Heaven”) is to view the sandbar upside
down. There are special platforms with
railings to help you balance while you bend over and look at the view from
between your legs – they even sell pastries and other sweets in the shape of a
person bending over.
I think today with the rain and the clouds, it wasn’t really
necessary to bend over to get the perception of heaven.
After lunch we took a boat ride across the bay to go up the
cable car on the other side. By then,
heaven had really set in.
We had hoped to ride bicycles back across the sandbar, but
decided walking was a better idea. The
weather did not deter the kids from wanting to go in the water. And, of course,
we had to put our toes in the Sea of Japan, but there were jelly fish in the
water which was the only thing that prevented them from swimming (certainly Not
the rain). We had a nice meandering walk
back along the beach, collecting shells, sea glass, and starfish along the way.
You can follow our route here.
In the end, the rain wasn’t such a bad thing. It certainly kept the tourists away, giving
us this little slice of heaven almost all to ourselves.
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