Coastline Adventure

As promised, now I will let you know how my coastline adventure last weekend went. Another ALT and myself decided to explore the northern coast of the Ishikawa peninsula. We started in Suzu (and made it almost to Wajima) driving down the roads that hug the sea and stopped and got out whenever we found a neat spot. 

First, we stopped at the Suzu Shrine. Outside of the shrine grounds we went inside a little shop selling various local produce and goods, and the old lady inside gave us figs to sample, and they were the biggest most delicious figs I have ever eaten! We of course bought a package of six and later that day ate all of them while sitting on top of a mountain.  Suzu shrine is considered to house a deity that is a guardian of/from the Sea of Japan. According to legend, there was a huge sea battle between two warring Japanese lords off the coast of Suzu, when a huge storm blew in and drowned one of the armies while carrying the other army safely to shore. So this shrine was built in dedication to the Sea (deity) that saved the one Japanese army. The Shrine even houses a wooden flute which is a relic from the battle. 

After leaving the shrine we headed down the road and stopped at an area called sanctuary cape. It has a great look out point, pretty little rocky beaches, and is the location of a very fancy and well known traditional Japanese inn (ryokan). Apparently this inn is very luxurious with a pool and bath houses overlooking the sea. After admiring the view above the ryokan we wandered to the other side of the cape and found a pretty place to go swimming. We clambered around on the rocks for a while and then swam in the sea. While sitting on the beach to have a snack we met a group of Japanese guys and found out that one of them is actually friends with another ALT that lives in Nanao- it is such a small world!

 

Our next stop was an old lighthouse...

After leaving the lighthouse we continued along the coast and found an area, that is not a tourist spot, but was certainly scenic with its awesome rock formations. This was actually my favorite spot we went that day, I thought it was so relaxing to be able to go sit out on the rocks with the sea roaring and lapping up against the rocks all around. We saw a man fishing off the rocks, probably catching that night's dinner for his family...

Our next stop was a shrine on top of a small craggy mountain at the edge of the sea. We waded through ankle-thigh deep water along the path of gates that were built from the road to the mountain, and then clambered up the mountain in our flip flops to find a tiny shrine. Luckily for the deity, someone had left him two bottles of sake and a coke, but they were pretty old bottles so we determined that not many visitors brave the water and steep mountainside to visit. Between the running around on the sharp rocky coast earlier and wading across this rocky water the bottoms of my feet were all cut up by the end of the day! But it was a great view and definitely worth it.

Our last stop for the day was "Godzilla Rock." Yes, a naturally occurring rock on the coast that someone decided looks like Godzilla and now it is a popular tourist attraction.