Unzen Tara Sea Line

 

The Unzen Tara Sea Line is a 7 kilometer long road that runs straight across Isahaya Bay on top of a dike.

The Isahaya Bay opens onto the Ariake Sea in Kyushu and separates the Shimbara Peninsula, formed by the volcano Mount Unzen, from the "almost" peninsula formed by the volcanic Mount Taradake to the north.

The dike was built as part of a major "reclamation" project with the bay behind the dike gradually being filled in to creat rice paddies.

Not unsurprisingly this turns out to be an economic and ecological disaster and is covered extensively in Ale Kerr's book "Dogs and Demons"

About halfway across is a rest area where you can get good views looking into the bay and out into the sea as well as up and down the road.

I was walking across to the Shimbara Peninsula on day 61 of my first Kyushu Pilgrimage. The previous post in this series was an overview of day 60