Amanohashidate to Kinosaki hot spring【Day2&3】(F-7)⭐⭐⭐⭐’23.16th,17th.July

2023年7月17日2024年8月11日

This route is in Area-F, Kinki. See Area-F map/ See Japan map

【Day１】Maizuru to Kinosaki hot spring via Amanohashidate

【Day 2】

Sight & Entertainment ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Food & Drinks ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Easiness ⭐⭐⭐

Road condition ⭐⭐⭐

Safety ⭐⭐⭐

I could wake up at 7:30AM and started from hotel at 8:15AM. It was sunny and hot, already 30C.

Soon after coming to R-175, the road went into a mountain area(pic.2). But thanks to the blue line cycling guide, I felt safe more than yesterday.

After 20min cycling toward West, I reached Yura river from which the road turned toward North(pic.3). Though there wasn’t cycling road on the bank, the road had enough width for cycling.

Within 1hour from starting, I reached the beach in Wakasa bay(pic.4). Some families were enjoying camping there. From there the road ran along the coast(pic.6) which repeated small ups & downs.

Finally after 1.5hrs from the start, I reached Amanohashidate(pic.7) which is a typical sandbar and which is one of the Japan’s 3 greatest scenery. I wanted to come there for long years and now the dream was realized.

The whole scenery can be seen from a mountain top observatory where we can only reach by ropeway or cable car(pic.8,9). Though there were few shops or entertainments on the observatory, it’s must to go there, otherwise you can’t see the shape of the sandbar.

　After coming back from the observatory, I picked up my bike and went inside of the sandbar(pic.10,11). You can cycling in the sandbar for 2km. Even rental cycling was possible. Surprisingly, many beachgoers were enjoying bathing there.

It was 11:00AM when I passed the sandbank. From there I went the back side of the bay, watching the sandbank on the left hand side. First I cycled on R-178 but there was no cycling space and many tourists car were driving. I felt danger there but soon I noticed there would be a cycling road on the shore(pic.12). It lasted over 5km to the end of the bay.

I felt very tired because I got hungry, thirsty and because of the heat. This time I craved Soba and I found one restaurant in 10km on the google map. “Sobaraku" serves only “Soba"(pic.13) with few toppings but the taste was very nice. I knew after eating that this soba, “Izushi soba" was a famous brand in this region.

　I recovered my energy but I had to pass several mountains to my hotel. Sometimes the R-312 was boring but when it came to mountain area, I could enjoy very rural view(pic.14) which healed me. But though I knew the rest had been only 20km, I could not help myself dropping in a cafe to cool myself down. So when I came to a small town, Kumihama, I searched a cafe and dropped in(pic.15), where I stayed for 30min.

Finally at 14:20, I restarted for final approach. The prefectural route -11 seemed hill climbing on the map(pic.16), but it was not so steep. Soon it started downhill and there was no more climbing.

The Route-11 went toward North to estuary along the paddy field. The color of green was so nice(pic.17). After crossing the river, I cycled for 3km in a car traffic jam which was made by many tourists coming to Kinoseki hot spring. Cyclists can win in such situation.

My hotel, UTSUROI TSUCHIYA ANNEX located deep inside of the hot spring town. I booked this hotel one week before at \15,000-. But it was very lucky. Other hotels were fully booked and very expensive but my room was very tidy and nice(pic.19).

I reached there at 3:15PM and soon went to hot spring hall(pic.20). Some hotels have their own spring but many others have a system of free pass ticket for several hot spring halls. I chose Mandara-yu(pic.20) near my hotel. The spring color was mostly transparent but has a little strong mineral taste. You can drink it at some spots in the town(pic.21).

I drank too much Japanese sake and ate Sashimi (raw fish) last night, I chose Tajima beef restaurant, “Gubigabu“. who served its local beer as well. Kobe-gyu(beef) is very famous but Tajima-gyu(beef) is the origin of Kobe-gyu. What I ordered was a beef tataki(light roasted beef, pic22) and not so expensive(\1,450-) but the taste was enough good.

It was 7:00PM when I came out of the restaurant but still bright. Most tourists had already been in their hotels or restaurants, so the town became calm atmosphere(pic.23).

After returning my hotel, I used hotels small hot spring which can be used only for the guests freely(pic.24). It was also good since I occupied the room when I was bathing.

I fell asleep at 9:00PM and woke up at 7:00AM. I had a good sleep. Day3 was almost for returning my home. To catch the express at 10:48AM at Toyooka station, 12km from the hotel, I started at 8:00AM.

It was quiet but very clear morning(pic.26). My final spot was Genbu-do, very big scale columnar joints spectacle as you can imagine by pic.27 and whose name became the origin of its rock in Japanese. It was biggest scale I had ever seen before.

Now the time to returning home. The express Kinosaki runs from Kinosaki to Kyoto station. Thanks to early morning, the car was almost empty though Toyooka station was next to Kinosaki hot spring. Pls be careful that this area’s trains often make delay. This time as well. I could barely catch my Shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo due to 10min delay made by this express.