Nima Harbour

 

Nima, a small town on the coast of Shimane is probably most famous nowadays for its unusual Sand Museum dedicated to the singing sands of nearby Kotogahama Beach.

The most sheltered part of the harbour is the main branch of the Shio River which has been blocked off forcing the river to empty into the sea down a fork. This has left a deep channel sheltered behind what was an island. The river was blocked off by rocks, not a concrete wall, which suggests it was done earlier.

The new harbour is a typical concrete affair with a big breakwater just outside its entrance.

There were not a lot of boats, and just one larger squid boat, but the harbour does have an ice machine. Japan Fisheries is the marine equivalent of Japan Agriculture, both technically co-operatives but in essence, massive organizations controlling huge budgets most of which seems to end up with the biggest Japanese corporations, especially concrete companies.

Just outside the new harbour is a rock outcropping called Kaiju Rock. I believe kaiju is a relatively new word that refers to giant monsters, the most famous being of course Godzilla.

Just past the harbour is a small, delightful beach..... The previous post was on the walk from Maji

Japan Sea Coast Maji to Nima

 

From Maji, the village that has Kotogahama Beach, to Nima, the next settlement up the coast, there is no coastal road and so the road rises to cross over the headland.

Looking back down the coast I can see the coastline I have walked along for the past three days, with the tall chimneys at Gotsu, my starting point, just visible.

The narrow road through the forest is uninhabited for about 2k until the road drops down to the Shiono River.

This is the main river of Nima, but is not very big and starts nearby in the mountains around Iwami Ginzan.

I walk up to the mouth of the river to see the views before backtracking and heading into Nima Port

The previous post in this series on the Japan Sea Coast was on Kotogahama Beach.

Kotogahama Beach

 

After leaving the confines of Tomogaura there is a long stretch of nice beach that stretches about one and a half kilometrers.

Kotogahama Beach is actually one of the nicest beaches in Shimane, but because it is fairly remote with little in the way of parking spaces and the town of Maji has few accommodation options, it is not crowded even in the short summer season of Japanese beaches.

This was the third leg of my deep exploration walk along the coast in mid-October. Actually, there are much nicer photographs in a post I did on sunset at Kotogahama Beach.

Kotogahama Beach is famous for its "singing sand", that squeaks when you walk on it. Not far away is the Nima Sand Museum which was built to celebrate this sand.

From here I hopped on a train and headed home. The last two photos are from when I started the next leg of my walk a couple of weeks later.

The previous post was the Tomogaura Tomokan, a historical building.

Tomogaura Tomokan

 

Tomokan is the name given to a couple of refurbished buildings in the tiny fishing village of Tomogaura, part of the World Heritage Sites of the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mines as it was one of the ports that serviced the mines.

It is thought they were originally built in the early to mid 19th century. The outbuilding is open all year round and has exhibitions connected to the port and the route to the mine.

The main house is only open from March through November. Tomokan is unmanned and free to enter.

If you are in the area then it is a good opportunity to look around a small, traditional home. My house was built about a hundred years later but used a similar construction . What is unusual is that both buildings are completely clad in sheets of cedar bark.

I earlier posted on the old harbour itself.

Tomogaura World Heritage Site

 

Tomogaura is a small fishing harbour in a narrow inlet and is part of the Iwami Ginzan World Heritage Site.

In the 16th century it was one of three ports used to service the mine and take out the mined silver. When the Tokugawa government took over the mine at the start of the 17th century it continued to be used to service the mines, but the silver was taken out overland to Onomichi on the Inland Sea.

It was the closest port to the mine, and is believed to have been the first. The 7k  route from the port to the mine is also part of the World Heritage Site.

The other two ports were Okidomari and Yunotsu. where I had left early this morning on this walk.

Right next to Tomogaura, now accessible through a small tunnel in the cliff is the expanse of Kotogahama Beach. The previous post in this series documenting my walk along the Sea of Japan coast was the walk from Yuminato Harbour.

Yuminato Harbour to Tomogaura Port

 

After leaving Yuminato I need to cross the Yusato River before I can continue u the coast. The first bridge is a little upstream and after crossing I need to head further upstream towards Yusato as the next section of the coast is rocky headlands and narrow inlets with no settlements or roads. Though it is October, Morning Glories are still in flower.

The river flows down from the mountains that contained all the silver ore that made it one of the richest mines on the planet and why the area is now a World Heritage Site. Up ahead I see the village of Yusato with the new expressway, the main San-in Rail Line, and Route 9, the main road from Kyoto all crossing the river in about the same place.

I stop in at the local village shrine, a fairly standard Hachiman Shrine with nothing notable or unusual, and just as I reach the edge of Yusato I take a narrow road up into the mountains. Only wide enough for a single small vehicle, I love these roads as there is never any traffic and its like having a  wide, paved hiking trail and there is only forest, no buildings, no other sign of humans.

After 15 minutes walk the road drops down into the tiny settlement of Kitahata which has a huge compound that i would call a manor house, that has always struck me as incongruous with its location. Obviously belonging to a wealthy and powerful family, its remote  location has always puzzled me. Though this is not the actual old Ginzan Kaido, the road that connected the Silver Mine with the nearby port of Tomogaura, it is very close to that road and so I'm sure it must be connected.

Kitahata has a small beach that is protected by thousands of tons of concrete that is reminiscent of Normandy beaches in 1944. Though it is an unpopular idea to many, one cannot help but think that Japan is at war with nature, though it is couched in the vocabulary of defense.

Climbing out of Kitahata along the narrow road that runs alongside the railway, a sign points to a trail that leads into Tomogaura. This is the old Ginzan Kaido and from it I look down on the little settlement that runs down to the World Heritage Port.

The previous post in this series documenting my walk along the Sea of Japan coast was Yuminato Harbour.

Yuminato Harbour

 

Yuminato is a small harbor and fishing village at the mouth of the Yusato River.

Now part of Yusato village, the main village is a little way upstream.

The river starts in the mountains visible in the photo above where Iwami Ginzan and the old silver mines are located.

Though there was a harbour with massive concrete walls, most of the boats were drawn up on the beach.

In fact, with the exception of one small boat with a tiny superstructure and cabin, all the boats were very small "open" types.

Yuminato translates as "hot water harbour". It is part of Yusato which translates as "hot water village", which is part of Yunotsu, which translates as "hot water port'.

On this visit, I was on the third leg of my deep exploration of the Sea of Japan coast. The previous post was the Hiso Natural Arch. 

Hiso Natural Arch

Hiso Natural Arch

Hiso Domon translates literally as the "cave gate of Hiso", but in English we would call it a natural arch.

It was the kind of sight I was hoping to discover on my walk of exploration along the coastline of the Japan Sea, and this was my third day.

The tiny settlement of Hiso is now considered part of Yunotsu and is the first settlement reached after taking the narrow coast road out of the back of Yunotu and Okidomari, the World Heritage silver mine port.

The road to Hiso passes a small Omoto Shrine that has no buildings at all....

And a small, roadside, Buddhist altar......

Hiso itself is very small, although a largish house has been renovated and modernized and is available as an upmarket guesthouse.

There is a small beach and a very small harbour protected by small stone barrier walls with a handful of small boats pulled up onto the beach. Surprisingly there are  no concrete structures in the harbour

The previous post in the series is Kushijima.