Trip Upcountry

Kyotango Coastline

30/05/11 

With our Serena van out of action, we decided to rent a car. Toyota Rentals has a branch in Kameoka so arrangements were made to pick it up from there at 9AM. In order to get there we had to take the local bus. I have only used a bus in Japan a couple of times. My impressions were small seats, old people and a slow trip. I remembered the odd system they have here of getting on through the rear door and paying as you get off. Anyway, this bus is a half size one being a countryside service and at this time of the morning was full of school kids and office types going to work. I had thought that 3 gaijins might cause a bit of a stir but nobody batted an eyelid. The trip was surprisingly quick until we got close to the city and got stuck in the morning traffic. It seems to me that while they can build great bus bodies, the Japanese have no clue about how to create comfortable and efficient interiors. The seats are too narrow, too close together and are at different heights. Despite these facts, there are not very many seats. The aisle is too wide suggesting that they would prefer you to stand while on a bus but have thrown in a few seats as a courtesy to the old or infirm. One good thing is the scoreboard thing above the front windscreen telling you how much money the fare will be if you get off now.

Once in town we headed for the rental office and picked up our Toyota Passo. The weather was not great with a bit of rain and wind and temps about 20 degrees. This cool weather is getting to be a big hassle. Expecting hot weather we all packed shorts and t shirts and have little in the way of clothing for this climate. Once we got the car we decided to head out exploring straightaway. We set a course for the Kyotango area which has some nice coastline and beaches to check out. On the way there we stopped to have a look at a dam. The lake behind the dam was full of floating debris from the typhoon and heaps of broken tree branches were piled up against the dam. The other side was far more spectacular. The dam operators had opened the spillway and tons of water was poring down the wall. The basin must not be that deep as the water, on hitting the bottom, bounced high into the air. In effect it created a 20 metre high standing wave. The noise and spray from this mountain of brown water was incredible.

All around us were signs of the storm. Lots of fallen trees, mud on the road and in a little village called Ine we came upon a big landslide which had swept a couple of houses away. It must have just happened as lots of electric company and road worker types were running around and some paramedic people were there too. One small truck was completely squashed by some big trees which put our little incident into perspective. Further north is the open sea and the waves were mountainous. We stopped in a place called Kamanyu for a look. There was nobody about as the weather has kept all the fishing fleet in port. I guess they were all taking time out from the tough life of the seafood industry. This place is all about fishing. Everyone and everything here is pretty much connected to the business of pillaging the ocean.  There were piles of nets lying around, squid boats with arrays of huge light bulbs and everywhere you went, that strong smell of fish. I wonder if you ever get used to that stink. Maybe if you live here you don't even notice it .This must be a hard place to live in the winter. The ocean fights back and everything here is weather beaten and the predominant colour is rust. The massive concrete seawalls are crumbling and the huge piles of tetrapods slowly breaking up.  Further along there was some spectacular cliffs and a few patches of white sand. We passed through a village where the houses line one side of the road with the beach on the other side. In NZ these houses would have large windows to capture the great view. Here, every single window facing the sea is either tiny or of frosted glass. Its a contrast the never fails to strike me. These small fishing villages are a world away from Namba and Shinjuku. They are not glamorous or high tech. The pace is relaxed and you get the feeling that nothing changes around here. All the people we met were friendly and authentic. The guys agreed that this is a side of Japan that tourists rarely see and were glad they had seen something more interesting than what you get on a tour bus.