As sakura in Tsuyama castle ruins park had almost finished, we drove to Miyasumi Koen in the outskirts. To our surprise, the purple/pink azaleas were blooming along the hillside.
Miyasumi Koen (三休公園)
Somei Yoshino sakura
After staying in Tsuyama for 2 nights, car was returned and train to Okayama city. Visited the Okayama Museum of Art as sakura had finished in Korakuen.
Bumped into an exhibition by the late Wada Makoto, who had drawn numerous illustrations for books, magazines and journals. Some of those are fairly easy to identify.
Okayama Museum of Art
PicassoBeethoven, Monroe, ChaplinTitanic
After lunch took Shinkansen to Himeji and transferred to Shioda onsen ryokan in the northern outskirts of Himeji via shuttle bus.
The ryokan was established in the Meji-era and thus it’s well over 100 years old. It has a fairly large premise along the hillside, including its rotenburo.
The Kaiseki dinner was sumptuous and delicious. Checked out on the next day and headed to Kyoto.
Drove to Matsue Castle after checking out of onsen ryokan on next morning. Luckily it was a sunny day while sakura was also in peak blossom. Though the sakura matsuri (festival) was on, not many hawkers were open on weekday.
After staying for about 1.5 hours, drove to a 100-year old unagi (eel) shop for lunch. Eels are sourced from Aichi Prefecture directly. It’s a favourite shop of Koizumi Yakumo in the Meiji-era.
weeping Yaebeni-shidarezakuraShogetsuYamamiseKoizumi Yakumo in Meiji-era used to visit this shop
Adachi Museum of Art
Drove to this museum whose garden is famous. It has a wide collection of paintings, carvings and ceramic. However, photography is not allowed for the collections.
Stayed for 2+ hours and checked into another onsen hotel overlooking Shinji-ko, Matsue.
no. 1 garden for 20 years since 2003Shimane Museum of Art
Embarked on the first sakura visit from early April 2023 since the covid travel ban has been uplifted for foreign tourists since Nov 2022.
Main theme of the trip involved visiting the Sanin area for the first time – Shimane and Tottori Prefectures followed by Okayama and Kyoto before returning to Fukuoka in 13 days.
Took a super-early domestic flight from Fukuoka to Izumo in 1 hour by a propeller. Picked up rental car and drove to Izumo Taisha in less than 30 min. As the latter is famous for courtship amongst locals, the Izumo airport is nicknamed as “Musubi” airport.
Izumo Taisha (出雲大社)
Izumo Taisha is one of the oldest and most important shrines in Japan. The current shrine was built in 1744 and is designated as a national treasure. Its grand scale is compatible to the 3 Kumano Taisha and in Suwa-ko that we had visited before.
It was lucky that we bumped into peak sakura blossom there 🙂
rabbit and snake kissIzumo Musubi airportJAL propeller
Next we drove to the coastal area for the Izumo-himisaki lighthouse and Inasa-no-hama before heading to Shimane Museum of Art, along the lake rim of Shinji-ko, Matsue.
Inside the museum, there was an exhibition of calligraphy in traditional Chinese characters. Most were beautifully written and adorable. We stayed for an hour and drove to our first onsen ryokan nearby.
Izumo-himisaki lighthousehabitat of numerous seabirdsInasa-no-hamaShimane Museum of Artoutdoor sculpturesShinji-ko
Tamazukuri onsen
Strolled along the onsen town where sakura was also in bloom after hotel checkin. Dinner was sumptuous and delicious using local produce – asari. Service was excellent 🙂
Took Hokuriku Shinkansen to Tokyo direct in less than 3 hours. There were plenty of vacant seats in the non-reserved cars till Nagano.
Stayed in Shibuya – one of our fav areas and keen to find out how it might have evolved after new buildings like Shibuya Scramble Square have sprung up in the last few years. Overall it was as busy as in the past.
Rikugien (六義園)
Our first visit. Although Koyo has slightly past peak, there were plenty of local visitors on a normal weekday. It is a beautiful landscape garden with well designed trails, interspersed by streams, ponds and bridges. Stayed there for 1 hour+.
A white crane walking along the rim
Kamakura
On the next day we headed to Kamakura and Shonan – our fav spots outside Tokyo metropolitan. It happened that a festival was held in the Tsuruoka Hachiman-gu, where we found many youngsters in school uniforms, apart from many locals.
In the evening, met up with local friends who had arranged a Japanese dinner in a traditional restaurant in Omotesando, which served produce from Niigata Prefecture. It was such a nice reunion in Japan post-covid 🙂
On the next day we visited the teamLab Planets in Toyosu.
I had visited the teamLab Borderless in 2019, but sadly it was closed in Aug 2022. Though we already possessed e-tickets, we had to line up with others which took about 15 min before admission.
All visitors were required to remove their shoes and socks to be stored in large lockers. Short pants were provided (for free) to access corridors and rooms filled with water up to shin level. Amazing visual effects were deployed. We enjoyed it and stayed for 1 hour+.
walking in water filled with virtual fishes
Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho
Dropped by it after lunch. Much to our surprise, roses were blooming, as in early May 2018 when we last visited. Strolled around Akasaka – it seemed more boutique hotels have sprung up, apart from new and old familiar shops. It was amazing that one local patisserie still attracted a long line – as in the past. Went for a coffee break in a nearby local cafe.
Returned to Hong Kong on the next day. Overall, it was a great holiday and Japan has resumed normal in many aspects.
Before checking in onsen ryokan, dropped by a local cool coffee shop in Sakai for a break. Customers have choices of coffee beans from various locations in Central/South America, Africa etc. It’s run by a young guy.
coffee break in Sakai
Awara onsen
Our first stay. Picked a 100+ year old onsen ryokan and stayed in a garden suite of Kangetsu Tei.
spacious suite with balcony
views of landscape garden
living room
bedroom
Calligraphy by former Prime Minister of Japan, and gift from Taisho Emperor are also on display in public area.
Calligraphy by former PM
Gift from Taisho Emperor
Haiya ryokan
Sumptuous Kaiseki dinner in private dining room, great service
On next morning we drove to Kanazawa, but first we dropped by Kakusenkei, Yamanaka onsen about 40 min away. It was smooth driving on national roads in light traffic.
Kakusenkei (鶴仙渓)
Trekked along a short trail of about 1.5km at the bottom of the gorge pleasantly. We crossed the gorge via the purple metallic Ayatori bridge and returned via the traditional Korogi bridge (in featured photo).
From time to time we bumped into locals – babies, kids to seniors. Guess some might be staying in the ryokans of Yamanaka onsen.
The stream was in turquoise in some sections, dotted by fall foliage here and there.
Ayatori bridge
Kakusenkei river bed
turquoise water
Yamanaka onsen (山中温泉)
Public onsen
Bassho museum
As it started to rain, we drove to Kanazawa and returned car.
Checked into Hotel Nikko Kanazawa (2nd stay in this hotel) for 2 nights. Unfortunately, it’s been raining day and night with occasional thunderstorms, apart from getting chilly. Thus we were less keen for sightseeing.
This was our 5th stay in Kanazawa.
Kanazawa-oden dinner
Visited the Omicho market before lunch time. It’s good that it was as busy as in our previous visits.
Had a slightly early lunch in our fav sushi shop before line appeared.
While strolling around the market, couldn’t help stopping by for fresh sashimi 🙂
When rain stopped for a while, dashed over to the Kuromon store opposite to the market. Enjoyed coffee and macha cake in a local tea house.
On next morning took JR Thunderbird express train to Fukui city in abt 80 min direct. There were plenty of vacant seats on the reserved cars. Btw, the train staff onboard did not ask for train tickets for validation – unlike in the past for reserved seats. Also, rain and misty clouds dominated the landscape when entering into Fukui Prefecture – similar to our last three experience passing by Fukui.
Meanwhile, overhead tracks (for Shinkansen trains) are being built when entering into Fukui Prefecture, while the JR Fukui station is being expanded for the future Shinkansen station. Re the JR West magazine onboard the train, it has been planned that the Hokuriku Shinkansen would extend to Tsuruga (from Kanazawa) in 2024.
Picked up rental car and drove towards Echizen Kaigan in rain (in about 30 min w/o much traffic) on Sunday morning. Fortunately, the rain stopped when we reached the coast and before turning south towards our first stop.
Hokojima (鉾島)
The pillar rocks are akin to those in Sounkyo/Daisetsuzan, Hokkaido. As it was after fairly heavy rain and still windy, did not bother to climb but went for lunch nearby.
strong sea waves keep crashing onshore
Arrived at a local restaurant overlooking the coast. Ordered 2 kani-don set – kani was seasonal “Seico” kani. Re the staff the Seico-kani and the Kabako-kani are the same, though the former name is used in Fukui. At the end it took more than 20 min for our 2 sets to arrive. But the wait was worthy – the entire bowl of the rice was covered by crab legs and beneath it was a sumptuous amount of crab meat and roe !
It was the best kani-don we ever had !! And it was compatible with the price of a (Kabako) kani-men in Kanazawa-oden. It is good value for money given the great taste and the fact that much manual effort is required.
After such a palatable lunch, we headed slightly further south to watch the Benkai-no-Sentaku Iwa (Benkai’s laundry rocks) before heading northbound to Tojinbo. The rocks look akin to those along the Miyasaki coastline in south-eastern Kyushu, though on a smaller scale.
sumptuous kani-don
Benkai-no-sentaku Iwa
Tojinbo (東尋坊)
It took about 30 min to arrive at Tojinbo, passing by the Mikuni coastline when sun rays emerged – much to our surprise but of course highly welcomed.
After leaving the paid parking lot, we passed by numerous restaurants, food stalls, souvenir shops on both sides of a lane before arriving at the coastline where the spectacular cliffs are. The rocks are in pillar shape similar to Hokojima but of a larger scale with bluffs, as a result of relentless erosion by sea waves.
