This is Kitayanagi street in the heart of Kinosaki.
This is Kitayanagi street in the heart of Kinosaki.
The drive to Kinosaki is a beautiful one, taking local highways to get there. You can also take the Bantan Train Line from Himeji, which I am told is a rather beautifully scenic ride through the mountains. I hear that it is especially pleasant in autumn to see the colors of the trees.
Mayu and I first visited Kinosaki in October of 2001, when we were seven months married. We just went there for a day trip, and we thought it was so beautiful. We gathered some information on where we could stay overnight on a budget and just walked around. We stopped by at the beach and played in the sand a bit. I got my feet wet while Mayu collected shells. She got her feet wet too as the tide sneaked up on her, and sand stuck to her wet sandals. It was a wonderful day.
We had lunch at a place called Ocean World or something and then we drove along the coast of the Sea of Japan. It was beautiful. The winding road led us up and down the mountains, past nearly vertical villages terraced into the mountainous coastline until we came to Hamasaka. From there we went south to Yumura.
Yumura is a neat little town, but it wasn't quite what I had expected. The picture in the book I had led me to believe that it was a coed rotemburo onsen (an open-air, outside hot spring), but I was mistaken. Apparently the picture was of a very old, ugly woman and a young woman, not an old man and a young woman. We were hoping to get into an onsen together like we did in our honeymoon in Yubara. I understand many Western people can't imagine getting naked with coed strangers, but if you're acclimated to the culture here, it's not a big deal. If it was America, I could only imagine having to endure the sight of full-on lewd behavior (or worse) committed by cretinous strangers before your eyes. In Japan though, coed bathing is not sexual and it used to be the norm. (You'd go rent a private (family) onsen to engage in sexy activity with just the two of you. )
Anyhow, there was a nice river that runs through Yumura with koi (Japanese carp). Along the river, cast in concrete, is a smaller stream, which is an ashi yu (foot bath onsen) that runs alongside the street. You can sit on benches and soak your feet in the warm water and it's a fantastic feeling. This is what we did instead. Unfortunately, I'd left my camera in the car and did not take any pictures. Lanterns were strung alongside the road and it was very beautiful. It was getting dark, so we headed home
We returned to Kinosaki in January, for our 10 month anniversary. This time we stayed the night at the budget ryokan we found on our previous visit. After we did some souvenir shopping, we took a bath together in the bathtub of the room we were staying in. Then soon we were served dinner in our room, and ate kani nabe (crab hot pot). I'd never eaten so much crab in my life!
This is the ticket we purchased for a family bath, reserved for just the two of us.
The deal with onsen food is that while it is so extremely extravagant and delicious, it is also very expensive. The place we stayed at was a discount accommodation because we were trying to save money for our 1 year anniversary trip to Nagasaki a couple of months later. Fortunately, it was not too expensive.
On Saturday we checked out and went to the Kinosaki Marine World Aquarium. I wasn't expecting much, so it turned out to be impressive, complete with dolphin shows. We had such a beautiful time, and got to visit the beach again.
On the road to Kinosaki for our first visit in October 2001.
Check out the old, traditional-style Japanese mailbox. Even if you don't have any friends, it must be nice to mail yourself postcards. You could write,
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Dear me, I am having a great time. I wish you were here. Oh wait, you are here because you are me. Sincerely, Me |
Left: here is me at the beach, and I am wading in the sea. Right: here is Mayu at the beach and she is... Actually, I don't know what the heck she's doing. Hey, what are you doing, Mayu?
This is the coast along the Sea of Japan. It really is beautiful. Behold the majestic hill-type thingies jutting out into the ocean. Oh look, there's Mayu.
So this is when we came back to Kinosaki in January 2002. We went to the beach again because the ocean is nice.
I thought I told you to leave me while I walked down to the beach. Tell me, how does it feel when your heart grows cold? Oh nevermind. That's a New Order song. Instead, here we walked down to the beach and our hearts grew warmer. Isn't that nice? Of course it is. What's nicer is that we got somebody to take our picture together. Or did I use a tripod? I cannot remember. I like New Order though. I see a ship in the harbor. I can and shall obey...
Here we are at the Kinosaki Marine World Aquarium. Mayu likes penguins.
This is the friendliest penguin statue ever.
Mayu looks so happy while touching slimy gross creatures of the sea. Isn't that nice? Just don't touch me, Mayu. Go wash your hands afterwards. That's gross. Right: one more cute picture of Mayu with the penguin statue.
So hey... that cute picture of Mayu at the beach gave me an idea, since the background is nearly all white. Here's Mayu floating in space, as seen through the Hubble Telescope. Wheeeee!
Next is an easy to understand example of the Hegelian Dialectic
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mail: greg -atsign- stevethefish -dot- net