Hamada River mouth to Shimoko River mouth

 

The Hamada River curves around the hill topped by the ruins of Hamada Castle before entering a narrow inlet with a narrow opening into the Sea of Japan.

The village at the base of the castle facing the sea is Matsubara, and it is well protected by lines and lines of tetrapods...

I guess it needs protecting from high tide surges, but located in a narrow inlet must mean its a bit of an overkill...

The shrine here is an Itsukushima Shrine, which I covered in the previous post in this series...

Below is the opening into the sea...

The inlet heading in the opposite direction is Tonoura, and it was historically a major safe haven for Kitamaebune ships...

I think this is the first seaplane I have seen in Japan...

The Kotohira Shrine located here I also covered in the previous post....

There are only a few houses now, but previously there would have been numerous lodgings for sailors, and also merchant houses that engaged in the lucrative trade....

From the end of the inlet a narrow road heads up over the high ground seperating the Hamada River drainage from the Shimoko River drainage.

It is surprisingly remote, considering downtown Hamada id so close...

There are some nice views of the rocky coastline....

There are several small settlements, but one tiny fishing village stands out....

From here I drop down to the mouth of the Shimoko River..... the next pilgrimage temple is nearby, but I will visit at the start of the next day....

The previous post was on the two shrines in this area....

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Sufu Beach to Hamada Port

 

After leaving the Hachimangu Shrine I pass by the small beach at Sufu before heading over a little rise and dropping into the wide curving beach and bay of Nagahama.

This is also the westernmost wharf of Hamada Port, the only deep sea port on the Shimane coast.

This western wharf has the Coast Guard station and seems to primarily export cedar logs.

Nagahama is home to several large shrines, but on this trip i passed them by, but did visit one small Inari Shrine.

The beach at Nagaham is well protected by a long wall of terapods with just a few gaps in between.

Near the eastern end of Nagahama, a small harbour for small inshore fishing boats.

Then, the main part of Hamada Port. Numerous silos, plus one of the container-lifting cranes. I know one of the major exports from the port is used cars.... shipped to Russia

I didn't visit, but looks like my kind of place.....

And then the main fishing port. This is the biggest fishing port in Shimane by far. It has a fish market with a couple of touristy restaurants. Squid is one of the biggest "products" landed here....

The fishing port has the infamous Hamada Great Bridge. Absolurely useless, goes to a little island that is just 10 meters from the mainland and that already had a bridge. Brainchild of a former mayor who decided it would make Hamada look like San Francisco. A prime example of the construction excesses of Japan before the bubble burst .

The previous post in this series on the Chugoku and Iwami Kannon Pilgrimages was on the two shrines I visited in Sufu, mentioned in the opening of this post.

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Yuminato Harbour to Tomogaura Port

 

After leaving Yuminato I need to cross the Yusato River before I can continue u the coast. The first bridge is a little upstream and after crossing I need to head further upstream towards Yusato as the next section of the coast is rocky headlands and narrow inlets with no settlements or roads. Though it is October, Morning Glories are still in flower.

The river flows down from the mountains that contained all the silver ore that made it one of the richest mines on the planet and why the area is now a World Heritage Site. Up ahead I see the village of Yusato with the new expressway, the main San-in Rail Line, and Route 9, the main road from Kyoto all crossing the river in about the same place.

I stop in at the local village shrine, a fairly standard Hachiman Shrine with nothing notable or unusual, and just as I reach the edge of Yusato I take a narrow road up into the mountains. Only wide enough for a single small vehicle, I love these roads as there is never any traffic and its like having a  wide, paved hiking trail and there is only forest, no buildings, no other sign of humans.

After 15 minutes walk the road drops down into the tiny settlement of Kitahata which has a huge compound that i would call a manor house, that has always struck me as incongruous with its location. Obviously belonging to a wealthy and powerful family, its remote  location has always puzzled me. Though this is not the actual old Ginzan Kaido, the road that connected the Silver Mine with the nearby port of Tomogaura, it is very close to that road and so I'm sure it must be connected.

Kitahata has a small beach that is protected by thousands of tons of concrete that is reminiscent of Normandy beaches in 1944. Though it is an unpopular idea to many, one cannot help but think that Japan is at war with nature, though it is couched in the vocabulary of defense.

Climbing out of Kitahata along the narrow road that runs alongside the railway, a sign points to a trail that leads into Tomogaura. This is the old Ginzan Kaido and from it I look down on the little settlement that runs down to the World Heritage Port.

The previous post in this series documenting my walk along the Sea of Japan coast was Yuminato Harbour.

Takuno to Nima

Takuno to Nima

Takuno is a small fishing port that I visited late on the third day of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage, my local Kannon pilgrimage here in the western half of Shimane. I had stopped in at Hateiji temple, number 5 on the pilgrimage, and also the Hachman Shrine next door to it. Before leaving I went to the small harbour to check out once again the intriguing shrine on the small offshore islets connected to the myth of Susano.

Takunoi had been a Kitamaebune port, a safe haven for trade ships to stop, and so was a little wealthier due to the business of lodging sailors and also with the establishment of some merchants, and this shows in the remaining examples of old buildings, many of which are empty and abandoned, like much of rural Jaoan.

On my way out of town I saw a small grove of trees and was surprised to find a largem gnarly tree with two trunks that had been marked as sacred by the addition of shimenawa. There was no signboard and nobody around to ask so the story of the place remains a mystery to me.

After a few hundred meters and passing a couple of small rock coves I arrive at the beach at Nima.

Here I discovered one of the numerous breeding grounds of the infamous Japanese tetrapod. Tetrapods must outnumber the people in Jaan many times over. Ubiquitous is truly the only word. Why it is that these strange creatures grow here so much more than in the rest of the world must be related to Japan's unique love of nature.

This unusual and whimsical sign warns to be on the lookout for the smuggling of nefarious people as well as contraband, and also to generally watch out for marine safety.

 

Small fish drying is not anynusual sight in the many small coastal communities. These are a San-in specialty, Nigisu, Deep Sea Smelt. I suspect these will find their way to some incredibly over-priced omiyage outlet.

A Walk Along the Japan Sea Coast part 3 Shiota

I suspect the fishing harbour at Watazu was busier in days gone by. It was big enough to have an ice-making facility, though it is possible that it was used by all the small fishing boats that come out of Gotsu around the corner on the banks of the river as I don't think there is an icemaking facility there.

Leaving the harbour there is then about 900 meters of narrow beach with the almost obligatory lines of concrete tetrapods just offshore.

Ahead is a headland that offers no possibility of walking around. The sand is piled high behind the beach, naturally as far as I can tell, and this embankment offers protection for the hamlet of Shiota in the hollow behind it.

Shiota, like my hamlet, is not a place anyone passes through. You either pass  by it, or go into. it. The lanes are narrow and most of the houses are older.

Route 9 and the Sanin rail line pass by somewhat enclosing Shiota before both of these main transportation arteries punch through the headland with tunnels. In the old days the Sanin -do, the ancient highway, passed over the hills a little inland from here.