Tango Region, Kyoto Prefecture (1 of 3 linked pages)


Tango Region, north Kyoto Prefecture, Nihonkai (Japan Sea) The Tango Peninsula was a trade route from Eurasian Continent to Kyoto. Fishing and sightseeing are main industries now.
Tokyo to Ine	Roadside at busstop	Amanohashidate
Ine Village	Tango Kyoodo Shiryokan	Charoku (Tea6)
Overnight at Shibata-soo	Shiryokan: Shuten Doji	"I love these local trains!"
Views from the overlook	Shiryokan: Anju and Zushio	Maizuru Hikiage Kinenkan
More sight-seeing	Tango Kyoodo Shiryokan "Ama"
Tango Region, Kyoto Prefecture



1. Tokyo to Ine An eight hour train and bus trip. It has been 36 years since we travelled long hours by successive train and bus to a remote place. It's still fun. I arrived from the U.S. last night, my 24th visit to Nihon. I have conquered jetlag.
362 _18Nov12-nh18_1901 The guy in the far seat has observed me complain about Noriko's repeated false panics: "Oh, we change trains in one minute, not one hour. -- No, I was wrong."	362 _18Nov12-nh18_1920 Relaxing on what I understood to be a long train ride. Five minutes after this photo, Noriko exclaimed, "I made a mistake. We have to change trains RIGHT NOW!"


2. Ine Village Located on Wakasa Bay, Ine is famous for wooden fishing houses called "Funaya". It was selected as "Groups of Important Traditional Buildings," a category of Japanese building protection. It was the first fishing village to be designated. In 2008 Ine joined the "Most Beautiful Villages of Japan." Tsutsukawa district and Honjo-Hama district have handed down the Urashima Taro legend. The unique Ine buildings which have existed since the 1700s were at first storage houses for wooden boats built for hanging up fishing nets. The current funaya were repaired along with the change of the times, the first floor is a combined boat garage and workspace for fishermen, and the second floor is used as a living area. Even now 230 houses stand in a row along the 5km length of the bay. The first funaya that were built were thatched roof wooden houses without a living space on the second floor, created to function as boathouses. At present, most funaya are wooden 2 floor buildings, and the second floor room is used as a guest room, or as living quarters for younger generation family members. There are also funaya which have been renovated as accommodation. The main houses are often found on the mountain side across the road, and this is where the everyday lifestyle is based. In addition to being in co-existence with the sea, Funaya also fulfill functional roles, and can be used for preparation of fish for cooking, making dried fish, and for carrying out fishing work activities while sheltering from wind and rain. Wakasa Bay at Ine has a net tidal variation of less than 50 cm, a hydrological anomaly. This makes possible the "boat garages." Normal tidal variation would of course inundate a whole story if not two. On an ordinary Tuesday in November there are zero rooms available. This place is an extremely popular attraction, mainly with Chinese, Hong Kong and Japanese tourists. I saw very few Caucasians. Everyone wants to stay in the Funiya, the nice guest room into which everyone has converted the upper 9' of the boat garage.
520 _FunayaOriginalForm Nineteenth century view.	520 _FuniyaPostcard	521 _FuniyaPostcard2
362 _18Nov12-nh18_2228	363 _18Nov12-nh18_2229	364 _18Nov12-nh18_2242
364 _18Nov12-nh18_2247 I left my heart on Wakasa Bay.	369 _18Nov12-nh18_2302a	369 _18Nov12-nh18_2303
365 _18Nov12-nh18_2248	366 _18Nov12-nh18_2254a	367 _18Nov12-nh18_2255 These wooden boats are now used only for the festival. (see next) For these traditional boats the garages were originally designed.
522 _IneFestivalPostcard	368 _18Nov12-nh18_2300 Locals of course now prefer fiberglass boats. These do not fit in the traditional garages.	370 _18Nov12-nh18_2303a Fish farms, and tombi (fish hawks) waiting for feeding.
372 _18Nov12-nh18_2306a	373 _18Nov12-nh18_2310	374 _18Nov12-nh18_2317
375 _18Nov12-nh18_2328	376 _18Nov12-nh18_2346a	381 _18Nov13-nh18_0004
378 _18Nov12-nh18_2347 Manhole cover. All are of this design.	379 _18Nov12-nh18_2351	379 _18Nov12-nh18_2351a
523 Wonderful sake brewery, at which we were too busy tasting and buyiny to remember to photograph.	380 _18Nov12-nh18_2355 Note slightly canted wall, the original funiya design.	380 _18Nov12-nh18_2358
381 _18Nov12-nh18_2358a The traditional form included slightly canted outer walls. Only a few of these can now be seen.	381 _18Nov13-nh18_0001 Kura. There are many, some dating more than 100 years. Not for storing treasure but for storing valuable equipment like nets and traps.	383 _18Nov13-nh18_0010 Street view
384 _18Nov13-nh18_0015	385 _18Nov13-nh18_0016


3. Overnight at Shibata-soo Our minshuku, Shibata-soo
520 _FishOfInePage1 Reputedly all these fish can be caught here, but actually an encylopedia of all fish caught around Japan. Shibata-san is somewhat exaggerating with his claim they are all caught near Wakasa Bay.	520 _FishOfIneP2 The sashimi was really good.	389 _18Nov13-nh18_1506 Breakfast. Alas we have no photo of the dinner "show." I did not bring down the camera because I never expected such an exceptional event. Hence the Shibata-san/Noriko co-performance is not recorded.
386 _18Nov13-nh18_1433 Shibata-soo is on Nihon Kai (the Japan Sea.) Walking along the water in the morning.	386 _18Nov13-nh18_1435	388 _18Nov13-nh18_1505 The sign for Shibata-soo can be seen.
389 _18Nov13-nh18_1512	394 _18Nov13-nh18_1655b Shibata-san our host, and Noriko, assistant to his dinner lecture. Shabata-san is the 13th generation owner of the minshuku, formerly a fisherman's house.


4. Views from the overlook Michi no eki Funaya-no-sato From a new tourist restaurant perched above the town, panoramic views of Ine Village and the bay.
390 _18Nov13-nh18_1654	391 _18Nov13-nh18_1654a	392 _18Nov13-nh18_1655
393 _18Nov13-nh18_1655a	396 _18Nov13-nh18_1656	398 _18Nov13-nh18_1657 About 25 years ago NHK did a series on Ine. That made its fortune as a popular tourist spot. This explains and remembers.
400 _18Nov13-nh18_1659	401 _18Nov13-nh18_1659a	402 _18Nov13-nh18_1700
403 _18Nov13-nh18_1700a	405 _18Nov13-nh18_1714 The floating enclosures are fish farms.	406 _18Nov13-nh18_1715


5. More sight-seeing More sight-seeing in Ine; boat tour
407 _18Nov13-nh18_1717	408 _18Nov13-nh18_1717a	409 _18Nov13-nh18_1720
410 _18Nov13-nh18_1723	411 _18Nov13-nh18_1725	412 _18Nov13-nh18_1727
414 _18Nov13-nh18_1738	415 _18Nov13-nh18_1741	417 _18Nov13-nh18_1745
419 _18Nov13-nh18_1745b	421 _18Nov13-nh18_1751	423 _18Nov13-nh18_1758


6. Roadside at busstop Good Jizos.
424 _18Nov13-nh18_2024	425 _18Nov13-nh18_2024a	434 _18Nov13-nh18_2042


7. Tango Kyoodo Shiryokan Tango region history and anthropology museum We were the only visitors to this large museum, possibly the only ones of the whole day. It is old and not fancy, but an important archive of historical materials. Many notes taken(see following)
426 _18Nov13-nh18_2028 Wonderful folk house.	427 _18Nov13-nh18_2028a	429 _18Nov13-nh18_2029
431 _18Nov13-nh18_2029b	433 _18Nov13-nh18_2030a	436 _18Nov13-nh18_2045


8. Shiryokan: Shuten Doji Shuten Doji lives near here! A famous local myth of which I learned via Anime.
82 _OeyamaShutenDojiFestival	83 _ShutenDojiOurTeacher


9. Shiryokan: Anju and Zushio The tale of Anju and Zushio (of movie Sansho Daiyuu, "Sansho the Bailiff") This area is the setting.
79 _AnjuHimeToZushioumaru


10. Tango Kyoodo Shiryokan "Ama" Exhibit on Ama, "sea woman." In Wakasa Bay they gather abalone, seaweed and shellfish, not pearls, from the seabed. The museum contains samples of their diving clothing and of the metal tools they use to scrape nori from undersea rocks. Japanese tradition holds that the practice of ama may be 2,000 years old. Traditionally, and even as recently as the 1960s, ama dived wearing only a loincloth. Even in modern times, ama dive without scuba gear or air tanks, making them a traditional sort of free-diver. If you refer to famales as "the weaker sex," a Japanese person will be puzzled.
524 _AmaHistoricPhoto	523 _AmaHistoric2	524 _Ama3


11. Amanohashidate According to the Kojiki, the oldest chronicle of Japan, Izanagi who lived in heaven used to use the Floating Bridge of Heaven to see his sweetheart Izanami who lived on earth. They were the first two humans. But one day, while Izanagi was spending a night with Izanami, the bridge fell down. The sandbar that crosses the bay is the bridge Izanagi used. Or maybe a clever local merchant 1000 years ago declared it so. It has been a tourist attraction for nearly 1000 years.
525 This is the famed view by which the feature is reputed "one of the three most scenic places in Japan." But you have to ascend the nearby mountain to enjoy this view.	438 _18Nov13-nh18_2231 From sea level the view is nothing exceptional for this region.	439 _18Nov13-nh18_2232
441 _18Nov13-nh18_2232b	441 _18Nov13-nh18_2233	443 _18Nov13-nh18_2250
444 _18Nov13-nh18_2254	445 _18Nov13-nh18_2256 Walking halfway across. These pines have extremely shallow roots since the ground is only a couple feet above sea level.


12. Charoku (Tea6) Our hotel in Miazu
448 _18Nov14-nh18_1704a This hotel is 350 years old.	451 _18Nov14-nh18_1724a	452 _18Nov14-nh18_1725
446 _18Nov14-nh18_1605 Small rooms, steep stairs - largely unaltered in 350 years.	447 _18Nov14-nh18_1605a	447 _18Nov14-nh18_1606


13. "I love these local trains!" Miazu to Maizuru We detoured to Maizuru solely to visit the repatriation museum.
453 _18Nov14-nh18_1749


14. Maizuru Hikiage Kinenkan The Maizuru Repatriation Museum Noriko believed that her parents had been repatriated to this port from China after Japan's surrender. The next day she learned from her surviving uncle and aunt that they probably returned via Kyushu, not Maizuru. But we were both glad to have visited this place. I knew nothing of this. After World War II there were from 560,000 to 760,000 Japanese personnel in the Soviet Union and Mongolia interned to work in labor camps as POWs. Of them, it is estimated that between 60,000-347,000 died in captivity. At the museum we learn that the total disaspora of Japanese located all over Asia and through eastern Europe was 6.6 million, 9% of the entire Japanese population. Over 95% were civilians who left Japan due to famines and the hardships of the preceding 20 years. After making this significant detour to Maizuru and paying a steep cab fare from station to museum in pouring rain, we found the museum closed. They have a weird custom of closing every third Thursday or something. But some staff were in the building. Noriko ran to the door and begged them to let us in for a while.
538 _MaizuruRepatriationMuseum	454 _18Nov14-nh18_2005 Map of the concentration camps holding the Japanese disaspora at the end of WW II. Siberia and Eastern Asia.	456 _18Nov14-nh18_2005b continued; Western Asia and Eastern Europe. There is no English language version of this map.
82 _JapanesePowsInRussia	82 _ModelOfPrisonHutInSiberia A couple displayed modeled the life of prisoners in Siberia.	84 _TheBelatedReturnofJapansLostSoldiers