To Amanohashidate

The most expensive piece of paper. From here on, I can book all the shinkansens I want!

The view on the Hashidate train is intertwined between rivers, jungles, and small villages. It is spectacular! Comparable to the view on Hida train.

Local soy sauce ramen

The first dish I tried. It has good soy sauce seasoning with a generous portion of meat. Decent.

View land

Chairlift

This is one of the experiences I have been looking forward to.

Even though there is no seatbelt, it is actually quite safe: there are hand rests on the two sides, and the furthest you are away from the ground is around 5 meters.

From here, you can see the panoramic glimpse of the sandbar.

View

Hearsay if you look at it upside down in between your legs, it looks like a path connecting heaven and earth, or it can also look like a dragon ascending to heaven. There are a lot of old uncles and aunties actually trying to do that, and I am afraid for their lives. Here I have done it for you: just take a normal photo and invert it.

There are also other side attractions in the viewland that people can check out, like sky biking, wheel flyer, etc.

I took the above photo from a higher ground where you have to take stairs up. The view is clearer with less crowd.

Across the sandbar

The sandbar is actually quite long: it takes around 1hr with average walking (and intermittent resting) for one to walk one direction. I did not expect it to take that long. There are actually quite a few bike rental options that you can consider.

The path is amazing, the experience of having the shorelines running on two sides is just amazing.

Serene beach view.

Reached the checkpoint on the other side: Funakoshi pine.

I managed to snap a photo with my tripod on the way back.

Turning bridge

Before I embarked on the walk, I was stopped for a few minutes. I was fortunate enough to capture the turning bridge in action: it actually turns when large ships pass by!

It paused for a good 5 minutes, and people stuck on both sides of the bridge scrambled to video record this moment.

Ine boat village

Known for its boat houses, Ine village lays along the shoreline of the bay, offering a fantastic view. It takes 1hr to travel by bus from Amanohashidate. Tbh this village really resembles some of the villages in Mekong delta in southern Vietnam.

Managed to capture a photo of the bay at the backyard of one of the houses!

Boat ride

The boat ride is a must-see experience! Without this boat ride, your view on the shore is quite limited. Do try to book tickets beforehand since it is cheaper if booked in advance.

A village view with lots of seagulls flying around my ship. The seagulls know that tourists offer them food, so they usually crowd around the cruise ships.

An image of the bay with a seagull waiting for food.

After the cruise, I enjoyed a pack of fried squid by the bay.

Concluding words

Amanohashidate is definitely worth a visit, and you can definitely do it as a day trip from Kyoto: the direct Hashidate train takes 2 hours in one direction, and the whole experience took 4 hours for me, if you do not plan to visit Ine village. The view is just spectacular, though the spot is a little bit too well known.