Hikes around Sakurae

Taki to Yunotsu and back
August 3-4, 2004

This is not a hike, but a boat trip, and as such it takes place outside of Sakurae, but its in the area, so I include it anyway.

We spend the first night an board my friends 20 foot yacht. We are berthed in its home harbor in Taki. Just before heading below for the night I notice a white arch out to see... same size as a rainbow, but no colors. Neither of us have ever seen such a thing before, and we ask 2 fisherman fishing off the quay, but they had also never seen such a thing. A few minutes later the cause of it appears as the full moon rises behind us to the east.

We are up at dawn and motor out of the harbor heading SW down the coast. A typhoon passed by 2 days ago, but there is little wind and the grey sea roils with a 2 metre swell. About an hour out it starts to pour with rain, and the sea gets rougher. An hour later and the storm passes and we can once again see the coast. There are no other boats around. Japanese fishing boats are little more than rafts, having no keel, so no-one ventures out unless the sea is calm. We pass numerous small fishing harbors, and then Isotake comes into view. We figure Isotake is big enough to support a cafe so we head in for some hot coffee.
We fill up the gas tank and discover that there are no cafes in the village, only vending machines, so sipping cans of iced coffee we have a little wander round the village. When we get back to the boat there are 4 Japanese guys examing her as if it were from another planet. There are almost no yachts on this coast of Japan. The idea of sailing itself, and the idea of sailing for pleasure is not thought of.
We head out and continue down the coast carefully avoiding the fishing nets that are strung out just offshore. This is a really pretty section of coast, not at all built up with many beaches and coves accesible only by sea. One section of a couple of kilometres has a dozen or so huge sea caves in the cliffs. One of these coves was famous as a haunt for Japanese pirates. As we approach the breakwater for the harbor of Yunotsu we decide to pull in and have a nap. Its only 1, but we are soaked and tired from little sleep last night. After a nap we will maybe head out again for a few hours before berthing for the night here. We tie up and walk in to find the harbor master to find out where we should berth for the night. At the harbor office a torrential downpour begins, and after ten minutes its obviously not going to ease up so the harbor master lends us some umbrellas and we head back to the boat and promptly fall asleep. We wake a few hours later, its still pouring, so we decide to move to the nights berth and head into town for a bath and some entertainment. There has been an Onsen ( Hot spring spa) in Yunotsu for more than 1300 years, and nowadays there are many Ryokan ( traditional Japanese hotels) with their own onsen, but we head to one of the 2 public baths. Many of the houses in the town do not have baths, so people go to the public baths every day.

Feeling revived after a pleasant wash and soak we head out to explore the night-life. Yunotsu was once a very important and busy port. Just inland is Iwami Ginzan ( Iwami silver mountain), and at the height of operations a couple of hundred years ago the mines were producing one third of all silver production in the world. The silver was carried down to Yunotsu and transported by sea to the Shogun in Edo. As befitting a place catering to thousands of miners and sailors, Yunotsu had many many brothels and bars as well as the baths. Today Yunotsu is a lot quiter. It turns out there is one small bar, and a "Show Pub", which is a Philipina hostess club. The bar is not yet open, so we are forced by circumstance to visit the hostess club. Hostess clubs are very Japanese. Men pay large amounts of money to sit with pretty young girls who pour their drinks, light their cigarettes, and generally flatter the men. After 2 hours of watered down brandy, some karaoke, and enjoyable company, we decide we had had enough. It was a very interesting experience, but not something I would spend money on any other time.
After a night onboard, lapping against the quay wall, we wake at dawn to a beautiful rainbow. It promises to be a fine day, so sipping vending machine coffee we wander around the town. In the centre of town is the Naito residence. The Naito family are the head honchos round here. They own the hot water that feeds all the Onsen in town. The house is old and very traditional. It is said the Shogun Hideyoshi stayed here on his way to invade Korea in the 16th century. It is a very pretty village, especially with the empty streets this time in the morning.
We head out and find the wind is coming from the land, so hoist sail and have a very pleasant cruise back up the coast. With sunshine it is even prettier, and hugging the coast we discover a waterfall cascading down a cliff into the sea. Sanbesan, the highest mountain around here is visible now too. The weather is fine enough that we pass several boats out fishing. We get back into harbor at noon and start to plan the next trip.