tokkuri ika

Remember that tokkuri ika we brought back from Amanohashidate?

Well, Satoshi got to try it this past Sunday.

Fill the ika with your favorite sake (hot or cold)

Then drink up!

He says he's gonna use this one more time then eat the ika.

Fun times!

ine-miyazu

It takes about an hour by bus from Ine back to Amanohashidate (because you need to go around the sandbar).

Since we couldn't check into the minshuku we would stay at until 15:00, we decided to have a snack at Amanohashidate before moving onto Miyazu for lunch and exploring.

We popped into Yoshinochaya, one of four tea shops near Chionji temple.

Each tea shop serves chiemochi, soft mochi that is covered with sweet bean paste.

I ordered the chiemochi (sakura version) with matcha.

Loved this! salty from the salted sakura leaves and blossoms and sweet from the bean paste. Bitter matcha to cut everything.

Satoshi ordered the original chiemochi. His order came with cold hoji tea (roasted green tea).

We then took the train one station over to Miyazu.

Talk about ghost town. There were no people, no cars, no movement...

We found a map of the city and then made our way to seek out lunch.

Nothing on the map seemed open, so we ended up at a tiny shopping mall called Mipple.

Their "restaurant floor" on the 5th floor was packed, lines everywhere (so this is where everyone was?!).

I noticed a "food court" on the 2nd floor so we went to check it out.

Talk about understaffing...everyone was waiting for their food. Dirty dishes piled so high we were afraid it would fall.

After waiting a good 15 minutes (or more), Satoshi and I ended up eating some meh curry from here.

We then headed back towards the train station where the minshuku would pick us up. Since we noticed a coffee shop (that was open), we popped in for some coffee.

Boy, was this place fancy!

The coffee was good and we realized that most of the locals hang out here.

The minshuku we stayed at, Nagahama-so, is located about 10 minutes by car from the Miyazu station.

From our room you could see Amanohashidate from one end to the other.

Dinner wasn't as elaborate as the night before, but still way too much food!

It was another long day, but at least the weather cleared up.

It's too bad that this minshuku's walls were so thin...Satoshi and the chain smoking man next door had a snoring contest. I tried to sleep listening to music but could still hear the man...guess he won, yeah?!

Not to mention the hallways were always filled with his cigarette smoke...at least we would be making our way back to Osaka tomorrow...

Yoshinochaya
468-1 Monju
Miyazu, Kyoto
Phone: 0772.22.6860
Hours: 9:00-17:30
Closed Thursdays

Siphon
2066-56 Aza Tsuruga
Miyazu, Kyoto
Phone: 0772.25.0850
Mondays 7:00-19:00, Tuesday-Sunday 7:00-22:00

Nagahama-so
376-1 Shishizaki
Miyazu, Kyoto
Phone: 0772.22.4840

miyazu-ine

Since rain was forecast in the afternoon, we were up and out the door early after a Japanese style breakfast.

From Miyazu, it is about a half hour bus ride to Ine (ee-nay), a sleepy fishing village on the Tango peninsula.

By eight-thirty, we were on a 30-minute boat ride to view the funaya (boat houses) village from the ocean.

Back in the olden days, this area was not accessible by car, only by boat, which is why they have these types of houses.

The bottom floors of these funaya are actually "garages" for boats and the living area of the home is located on the second floor.

We also learned that after roadways were made, the extended family lived "across the street" from the funaya.

Back on land, we walked to the minshuku that we would be staying at and left our bags.

Then we went to get bicycles.

The nice thing in this village is that you can rent "electric bicycles" for a small fee or use their "my power bicycles" for free.

The "my power bicycles" can be returned anywhere in the village, while the "electric" ones need to be brought back to the place you rent them from.

We went with the "my power" type and decided to check out the michi no eki (parking area), which was at about the middle of the village...what we didn't realize was that it was at the top of a mountain...gulp!

From the top of the mountain, you can see the whole village.

Satoshi decided that he wanted to check out the other side of the village, so we gingerly went down the steep road then made our way to the other end of the village.

On the way, we decided to stop in for coffee at Ochayanokaka. (Love their homemade cups!)

The lady was so nice (and trusting) that she left us to watch her shop until help came, while she went to be a guide for a boat tour.

We then made our way to the end of the village.

By this time we were feeling hungry, so we returned our bicycles and then went to look for lunch.

Being a tiny village, and GW, not many places were open for lunch.

We ended up waiting over an hour in line at Heishiro.

Satoshi and I had their kaisendon (seafood bowl), this hit the spot!

While waiting to check-in, we walked around the village.

There were many kura (storerooms) that had different emblems on them. These emblems are called kote-e (ko-tay-ay). The emblems are three dimensional figures, words or family crests to wish for good fortune, ocean safety and such.

Just as we checked-in to the minshuku we would be staying at, Waterfront Inn Yosaso, the rain came...good timing.

This place was renovated and the area where the boats used to park was transformed into the dining room.

This minshuku has no televisions, phones or clocks in the rooms...so bring a book!

Dinner was krazy!

All that for two....

I could only eat so much, and gave half of my crab to Satoshi...he was super happy.

Oh there was also o-suimono (clear soup) with takenoko and kelp in it and yuzu sherbet...(sorry no photos)

Totally full, with no access to wifi or tv and the rain coming down, we ended up turning in at 20:30!

It was another long but great day.

Ochayanokaka
780-3 Kameshima
Yosa-gun, Ine-cho
Kyoto
Only open on Saturday and Sunday

Heishiro
155 Aza Hirata
Yosa-gun, Ine-cho
Kyoto
Phone: 0772.32.0055
Closed Thursdays
Hours: 11:00-14:00 (lunch), 17:00-21:00 (dinner)

Waterfront Inn Yosaso
507 Aza Hirata
Yosa-gun, Ine-cho
Kyoto
Phone: 0772.32.0278

p.s. I have a few more GW posts, so stay tuned!

osaka-miyazu

From our place it takes about 2 hours to Amanohashidate, a sand bar located in the Northern part of Kyoto prefecture.

It had been ages since the last time I had been here!

Amanohashidate is one of three top scenic spots in Japan. For your info, the other two scenic spots are the pine clad islands of Matsushima (Miyagi) and the torii at Itsukushima Shrine (Hiroshima).

We had to change trains at Fukuchiyama and was surprised by these new trains. Apparently this part of the line was bought by Willer, a bus company.

We arrived at eleven-ish and I decided in order to beat the crowds we should seek out lunch.

We had lunch at Cafe du Pin which overlooks the rotating bridge (I'll talk more about this bridge later).

Satoshi had the Miyazu "burger"...did you know that Miyazu is known for sardines?

Well, his "burger" had sardines, lots of veggies, even shiso (perilla) and mayo.

I went with their chicken katsu sandwich. This was like chicken namban (sweet sour fried chicken with tartar sauce).

Both sandwiches were good and the view was really relaxing.

After lunch we went up to Amanohashidate View Land.

You have a choice of riding a "monorail" or the lift. If you don't have a lot of time to spend here, definitely take the lift.

We chose the lift because we didn't want to wait twenty-something minutes for the monorail nor did we want to be crammed into the monorail car.

Plus you can get shots like this.

When you reach the top, there are platforms you can stand on. Face your backside to the sandbar, then look at the sandbar from between your legs.

It is supposed to look like a dragon rising to the heavens.

I was too embarrassed to do this. I'm also flipping my photo upside down for you to see.

We then went back down to the area we had lunch, to see if we could rent-a-bicycle...well, because it was GW (Golden Week) there were no bicycles to be rented one-way, so we walked the length of the sandbar (it only takes about an hour).

Back to that roatating bridge. This is a bridge that moves so that boats can get "across" the sandbar. Pretty neat to watch it move. Apparently in the olden days, men used to move the bridge with pulleys.

Nearby the rotating bridge is a huge wisdom ring (chie no wa) it is said that if you can pass through it three times, you'll become very wise. It is too small for adults, so lots of children were going through it. It was also apparently used to hang lanterns from for boats to see.

The sandbar has about 8000 pine trees, many were huge!

Once on the other side, we went to check out Moto-Ise Shrine and Manai Shrine (power spots)

Then we went up on the lift to Kasamatsu Park. This was a steeper grade.

From here, you can see the sandbar, but it looks like the dragon going up at a slight angle.

We also took a bus to Nariaiji, a temple located up above Kasamatsu Park.

The road is so steep and curvy that they only allow authorized vehicles up there. Pretty scary riding a mini-bus up there!

The view is pretty breathtaking though.

Once back at Kasamatsu Park, we then queued up to take the lift back down.

The minshuku (family run inn) that we would stay at was really close to the park. It was a good thing too because we were exhausted.

Dinner was an assortment of seafood.

It was a long day, but we were glad that the weather was nice.

I'll continue with our adventure to Ine-cho tomorrow...stay tuned!

Cafe du Pin
468 Monju
Miyazu, Kyoto
Phone: 0772.22.1313
Hours: 9:00-18:00

Minshuku Miyuki
244-1 Ejiri
Miyazu, Kyoto
Phone: 0772.27.0034

we're back

We're back from a trip to Amanohashidate and Ine.

Golden Week ends on Thursday, so I'll work on photos and such then.

Hope to have a post up soon.

Talk to you later!