Exploring Hiwasa

What?
Hiwasa (日和佐) is a quaint town along the southeast coastline of Shikoku. Despite its small size it has a number of attractions, like the Yakuoji temple (薬王寺), temple nr.23 on the pilgrim route, the enormous Ebisu Cave (恵比寿洞), but also a hilltop castle and a sea turtle museum, related to the turtles who come to have a rest every year along the rugged Hiwasa coast.
Where?
Hiwasa is a town now integrated in the bigger municipality of Minamicho (美波町) in Tokushima prefecture ( 徳島県). It can be reached by taking train on the JR Mugi Line (JR牟岐線) from Tokushima Station (徳島駅) or by bus from Osaka (大阪).
URL
Minamitime (JP) Japan Travel Sea Turtle Museum Caretta (JP)

I did barely any research about Hiwasa before I left, but enough to know that the sea turtle museum was closed on Mondays. Apparently, sea turtles come and rest along the Hiwasa coast every year. They even made a manhole cover design for this.
So I was clever enough to visit it yesterday.
The museum was not very big, but bigger than what I expected. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like turtles, and given the amount of turtles I’d say it wouldn’t hurt to visit here. There also seems to be a lot of information about turtles, but even for me who am fluent in Japanese, the absolute lack of any English signs makes that it is difficult to really learn something here. It’s basically watching a bunch of turtles and their slow relaxing way. In an albeit little bit old and dirty building, it has to be said. But watching turtles, it gives me a nice and relaxed feeling.

At my hotel yesterday I picked up that there was also a sea turtle cruise sailing across the shoreline. Even if there wouldn’t be any turtles around, you’d still witness the great coastline with the massive Ebisu cave. Unfortunately, here my lack of preparation bothered me, as the cruise is only available after reservation and starting from 4 people. A bummer.

Well, nothing for it.
I rented an electrical bicycle at the tourist office in front of the station and set out for the Minami Awa Sunline Road which has a few viewing spots over the Senba Cliffs (千羽海崖) along the way. The road went up considerably, but with my electrical bicycle this didn’t pose any problems. One extremely high bridge did though, scaring the bejesus out of me, but I crossed it driving in the dead center of it. Arriving at the viewing platform, a bunch of stray cats immediately surrounded me, begging for food that I didn’t have. One of the cats was seriously injured and I got a flashback to one of my previous trips to Shikoku when two abandoned dogs made me not sure about what to do. I had no way to take care of this small animal, so I just hope that when the small vending booth at the viewing spot opens its doors, they will take of him/her.

The view from up here was quite nice. Despite its name and purpose, it didn’t offer very clear views on the Senba Cliffs, but it did give an endless view towards to south, over half a dozen small islands off the coast.

A longneck turtle with a very scary head.

Cute "everyday" turtles.

Overrun by stray cats.

A bunch of islands off the coast.

My little research learned me that the local castle was also closed. But as the cruise didn’t happen, I decided to go there anyway, starting at the Ryuga Park (竜宮公園) passing the Asahigaoka viewing platform (朝日ヶ丘広場) along the way. This spot is said to be beautiful during sunrise, but this morning I chose to stay a while and talk with the friendly people at my hotel.
At first I thought the 30 minute walk would be the same as the coastal pilgrimage of the previous day: a nice forest trail without any views. But I was wrong! Even though short and meeting more people than the three days before combined, the trail towards the castle had many beautiful views over the town, the local bay, and over that impressive Ebisu Cave that I couldn’t get enough of. There are many paths on top of this coastal bump of landmass, but I suggest to stay on the shoreline path as it doesn’t grow boring at any point.

I arrived at the castle and was somewhat disappointed. It doesn’t really matter for me if it was closed, as I am of the opinion that castles are better to view from the outside than to enter. And as the Kumamoto Castle taught me, reconstructions can be very impressive. But here in Hiwasa it didn’t seem that a lot of effort was made. A glass sliding door, obvious concrete walls, simple apartment windows… seriously, if you’re going to rebuild a castle on such a nice spot, do it right. It’s clear to me that this castle won’t reopen again soon. A classic Japanese example of too much money used the wrong way.
But I’d suggest you go there anyway. Not for the castle, but because of the myriad of paths on the hill, many with great vistas.

From the Ryuga Park, I hopped again on my bicycle to have a famous local lunch: awaodori chicken. With a beer of course.
A great closer of a 4 day trip to Shikoku.