Ine Funaya, Amanohashidate and Miyama

We went on an adventure yesterday. A couch trip to new places we hadn't hear of before. It left from the other side of the Kyoto Station at 8:00 and we needed to be there by 7:45.

We took a taxi.

The coach was full. There were people from various bits of China, India, a smattering of people from Western Europe, 4 Australians (including us). No Japanese people and, interestingly, no Americans.

It took a couple of hours, driving north west through the mountains, to get to our first stop, Ine. Ine is a traditional fishing village, made up of two storey wooden houses. People live upstairs, boats live downstairs. We started out on a 30 minute boat trip around the bay, feeding prawn flavoured potato straws to the seagulls. I have a bit of a problem, feeding prawn flavoured snacks to wild birds. The wild birds in question had no such problem. And neither did the black kites who accompanied them.

Lindsey's fingers got a bit squashed by the claws of a black kite who wanted the prawn straw she was holding out to a seagull! The seagulls take the chips, apparently gently, in their beaks. The kites do not!

Then we went round to look at the fishing village itself.

Back on the bus and off we went to Amanohashidate which is famous for its dragon shaped sandbar, its temple complex and for the magnificent view from the top of the mountain. It was Sunday. It was a beautiful day. It was crowded. It took nearly 40 minutes to queue for the chairlift to the top of the mountain.

We didn't have much time to play with and we wanted lunch, a loo stop and a look at the bridge, the sandbar and the temple. Time was going to be very tight. So we went to the top, admired the view and then queued to come back down again.

The chair lift is steep, but it is not very high. It you fell off your chair you probably wouldn't come to much harm. The chances of you falling off, though, are very slight. Apart from me, coming back down, getting on. My bag got stuck behind me as I went to sit down, the bloke supervising slowed the chair down slightly. The combination meant that I nearly missed the seat. Fortunately, I didn't but I was a bit hunched over on the way down. Lindsey nearly missed her seat altogether. She was behind me and was watching me almost failing to sit on a perfectly nice chair - and forgot about her chair 🤣

Going up

View from the top

Coming back down

You could use the monorail instead.
Some people went up in the chair
and came down in the monorail

We had lunch in a cafe down at sea level. I accidentally ordered two lunches. I asked for the crumbed pork and the picture showed pork slices and salad. I thought it needed some rice and maybe some curry sauce, so I ordered that too. Alas, when the food was brought out it turned out the pork was part of a set, with rice, pickles, miso soup, katsu sauce, other tasty morsels. I really didn't need the curry rice. Really didn't. But Lindsey and I used the curry sauce since it was there and paid for, and very much enjoyed it.

We had a quick look at the bridge to the sandbar and around the temple complex. I would have liked more time there. We didn't get to the sandbar at all and didn't have a proper look at the temple.  I would have liked to spend more time at the top. It is easy enough to get to by train, though. If I find myself in Kyoto again with a spare day I might just go out and spend it there

By this time I was ready to call it a day and head back to Kyoto. But we still had Miyama to visit. Miyama is an out of the way traditional thatched village about an hour and a half from Amanohashidate. 

I stopped in the shop to buy us ice creams. Lindsey disappeared. The lady in the shop warned me that the black kites might fancy my ice creams. I tell you - if a black kite wants my ice cream, it can have it. I am not arguing with a determined kite. Fortunately, no kites appeared demanding I give up my snack. Also, no Lindsey appeared.

I ate mine while I was looking for Lindsey. Her ice cream was melting, melting, melting and dripping all over my t-shirt and. my trousers. Eventually I ate what was left of that one too. I didn't really have anything else I could do with it. Japan does not have public rubbish bins sitting about and it's a bit rude to throw your melting ice cream into the river or the paddocks or onto the path.

Lindsey had to buy her own ice cream when she returned from her walk around the thatched village. She would have liked more time there to explore properly. I'm not sure how we would get there on our own. I think you need to be on a tour or in a car. It is an actual village with actual people living in it but it is a bit out of the way, there is no train and I didn't see a bus stop. Although I wasn't looking for one so I may have missed it.

We got back to the Kyoto station around 6pm. We had a wander around a very busy Don Quijote before taxiing back to the hotel. We visited the local Family Mart for some sandwiches and snacks. It was a good day.

I have finally found some corn soup. It was available at breakfast in the hotel today. It was Maggi's finest out of a machine, so not "proper" soup. But it was good enough to count as a win for me.

We are moving on today. A bit of a pity. I like it here. But I'm sure I'll like the next place too. I haven;t been there before. Another adventure.