Southern Honshu

September 27, 2004

It’s been a glorious 4 years with the woman and this year we decided to take a short three day getaway to the southern tip of Wakayama prefecture to relax. The area is reknown for its rugged coastal areas, nice beaches, and hot springs. Hopefully this will be more of a mini travel guide for the things we saw with some details of the trip sprinkled in for my own memories.

It was very pleasant to escape the busy atmosphere of a giant city like Osaka and escape into the quiet, serene surroundings of Wakayama. While the temperature seemed a bit hotter, there was always a nice ocean breeze that went far in cooling us off. It may have been the relaxation but I noticed people there seemed more polite and laid back than the big city folk.

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Day 1 [Osaka - Shirahama - Kushimoto]
We started early Friday morning with a quick breakfast and then boarded the “Ocean Arrow” express train from Tennoji station and about 2.5 hours later, we arrived at Shirahama station. Shirahama (literally, “white beach” – we’ll get back to this) is a cozy little town of 20,000 on the south western tip of Wakayama. At the station, it’s quite apparent this is a tourist town. There were immediately omiyage (souvenir) stores lined up with older women who “irrashaimase” you to death. There were people greeting us and suggesting we get on the bus. We eventually bought day passes for this bus – we paid 1250 yen for a 2 day unlimited pass (highly recommended if you’re going to stick around in Shirahama). You can also rent Nissan compacts for 5000 yen a day, bikes at the station, or just plain walk around. We had lunch in one of the few random restaurants.

Shirahama was going to be our transit station although we were going to come back tomorrow. But for now, we boarded the Kisei train to get to Kushimoto. This time, the train took about an hour and offered a lot of scenic views of the forests, hills, and seaside. The ride is rather bumpy so caution to those who get sick easily.

The reason we went to Kushimoto was because the woman booked us a small cottage at a hot springy place. We were picked up at the station by a man who walks like a chimpanzee. He was really friendly and seemed funny (as far as my Japanese can tell). He took us and another couple to his establishment. His place was really just about 10 wooden cottages probably built by him out of old wooden containers and a lot of blue and pink paint. In each of these cottages was an open-air bath tub. The place also faced the Pacific and was so out of the way that you couldn’t even spend money if you wanted to.

We immediately stripped naked and had a nice hot bath. The monkey dude did a pretty good job with the cottages which included a nice bed with a mosquito net, a sofa bed, coffee table, washroom, and a nice TV. The woman and I quite enjoyed the place. After a quick nap and a walk on the beach, we had a BBQ dinner in front of the sea. The dinner would’ve been perfect had only the stray cats not sat around begging for food. I gave some scrap meats to a black cat I named “Kuro” only because he seemed to have sustained some sort of injury. (Kuro means “black” – how imaginative huh?) Pitiful Kuro got a few mouthfuls of beef while the other cats got burnt vegetables.

This was about when four vans pulled in with sweaty, tired, TV crewmen from a neighboring establishment. They were filming at a better hotspring location but that location couldn’t accommodate so many sweaty, tired men. The monkey dude’s place could. Anyway, they were loud and parked RIGHT in front of us, blocking the ocean view. I hope their show flops.

After dinner, the monkey dude let us soak ourselves in the public pool privately. I got to go in the woman’s bath! A rare privilege I’m sure. After an hour long soak, we headed back and fell asleep watching Babe 2.

Day 2 [Kushimoto - Shirahama]
Getting up bright and early, we had breakfast in front of the ocean. Monkey dude (and family) made sandwiches and served us iced drinks. It wasn’t extravagant but he’s really nice. I saw monkey dude run here and he even runs like a monkey with his arms swaying by his side.

After breakfast, monkey dude drove us somewhere and dropped us off. Here we were at the most southern point on Honshu island. There was a tower with a 360 degree view on the top of the surrounding area. Admission 300 yen. Not worth it because the rest of the tower was filled with really weird carnival stuff like funny mirrors, OLD arcade games, weird paintings and yet another souvenir store. The cool thing though was that with admission, you get a certificate saying you’ve visited the most southern point on Honshu island. However, looking at a map of Japan, this point doesn’t mean shit. It’s like driving 50 clicks and saying, “I’ve driven the fastest speed possible… without breaking the law”. Anyway, scratch this place off from my list of things to do before I die.

From there, we took a bus back to the station and a train back to Shirahama. We got there around noon and this is where we started visiting interesting sights.

1. Sandanbeki
I’m not exactly sure what the name means but this rock cliff was pretty cool. There’s a cave system underneath where supposed pirates stashed their loot.

2. Senjojiki
More rock formations but this time in the shape of a “thousand tatami mats”. This place reminded me of the Grand Canyon for some reason. Too bad so many dipshits wrote their stupid name into the rocks, thus destroying the natural beauty of the place.

3. Shirarahama Beach
Here’s where the city name of Shirahama comes into play. The beach is filled with white sand and is quite nice to relax in. According to the Lonely Planet, this white sand was imported from Australia because the original stuff washed away. Regardless, it would’ve been nice to come here for swimming or jetskiing.

4. Engetsudo
This is a small rock “island” probably about a 100 meters away from shore. It has a strange shape – it somewhat looks like the Chinese character for yen – hence the name I suppose. In the winter, you’re able to see the sun set right in that little hole thing on the bottom. That would’ve made for a fantastic picture. We actually just drove by on the bus while I snapped half a dozen pictures here.

By late afternoon, we got to our hotel. It was aptly named “Seaside Hotel”. While it has regular hotel rooms (ie. Western rooms), we stayed in the Japanese rooms. This place was a hybrid normal hotel and ryokan (traditional Japanese inn). Our room was a big 8-tatami mat sized room with a big table and two low chairs. There was no bed.

Here’s the procedure. From the front desk, a lady comes and takes you into your room. While you sit down and take a breather, she prepares green tea for you. You have the tea, she rambles on a bit and then leaves you alone. Around dinner time, you’re supposed to put on the robe in the closet and go to the dining area. While you’re eating, someone will go back into your room and prepare the futon so that when you return, you can go right to sleep.

Well dinner was quite nice. We were served a tiny portion of many kinds of food including sashimi, nabe, pickled stuff, rice, soup, tempura, and a slice of pineapple for dessert. While eating, some idiot drank too much or wasn’t used to drinking and I guess passed out. The woman beside him went into a frantic calling of his name and an ambulance was called. Idiot. Curtains for Day 2.

Day 3 [Shirahama - Osaka]
Sleeping in a good futon can be a very comfortable experience. Note to self: buy a good futon. It took the combined mystic strength of me, the sun, the moon, and all magical creatures on the western plane of existence to wake the woman up and make her get ready. We had a very traditional breakfast at the ryokan – you know the stuff; rice, miso soup, fried fish, eggs, bits of meat, pickled stuff, and tea.

Day 3 was to be a big difference from yesterday’s sight hopping. We explored the wonderful placed called Adventure World! Admission 3500 yen. Rides and some attractions cost extra.

The place is quite huge but once you’re walking around through the exhibits, you realize that it’s just made up of a few big areas filled with little actual stuff. In the first two hours, we managed to watch the dolphin show, the whale show, gawk at the very cute pandas and have lunch and walk around a bit.

We spent a lot of the time in Safari World – first a free train ride around the area that put many people to sleep. Then we rented a golf cart looking thingy and drove through the herbivore area and took pics of animals up close. We finished the day with a ride called Safari Jeep Rescue, 2000 yen / person. This was pretty cool. At 4pm, the animals are to be herded back into the shelters and this was a ride where you could go along and see the lions, tigers, bears, cheetahs, and such up close. I got some pretty good pictures of animals that could’ve torn me to shreds all in the safety of an SUV with magic glass windows.

A word to the wise – these extra jeep rides and what not at Safari World area really limited in seating numbers. Go to the counter right when you get there (opening time’s 10AM) and sign up. When we got there at 12′ish, everything else was booked already.

Phew. That’s it. After that we got on buses and trains and got ourselves back in Osaka. What a weekend.

Jerry wrote this in: Japan • Travel
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