Hamasaka Bay – The Trip That Didn’t Go As Planned

What?
Hamasaka (浜坂) is a small coastal town along the Sea of Japan. As most towns in this area it is made of a short inland beach flanked by high cliffs and sea caves. It’s possible to visit them with a tour boat or a kayak, but it has to be the right season. To the east of Hamasaka Bay there is a 245m stump that is called Mount Kannon (観音山). To the west an unnamed stump is home to the Yajogahana lighthouse (矢城ヶ鼻灯台) and several viewing platforms well worth the visit.
Where?
Hamasaka Station on the Sanin Main Line (山陰本線) is located at the northeastern extremity of Hyogo Prefecture (兵庫県) and is only served once every 1-2 hours. Nearby major stations are Tottori (鳥取), Kinosaki Onsen (城崎温泉) or Himeji (姫路), but there are also direct limited express trains from Osaka station (大阪).
URL
San'in Kaigan Global Geopark

Usually, when there is an interesting campaign from JR railways, it’s either only for use of slow trains or in my experience in the Kanto or Kyushu areas. My surprise was huge when I saw the “dice campaign“ which was only valid if you would start your journey from Osaka station.
The concept is simple. You pay 5000 yen for one (digital) roll of the dice, and there are six possible destinations that can come out.
To reach these destinations - all but one in the Kansai area - you could make use of fast express trains and you were allowed to get off at one predetermined station along the way. Whatever destination you’d roll, you’d get a good deal.
4 of the destinations were on my to-see list. Another one opened possibilities for an interesting side trip. Only the last one didn’t really entice me; Amarube seemed only interesting for train aficionados and I had visited Kinosaki Onsen - the predetermined station along the way - only two years ago.
Of course I hit the jackpot.
Not everything goes as planned.

But well, I got the ticket, I could only make the best of it.
So I started planning. The whole northern coastline of Hyogo and Tottori prefecture which form the Sanin Kaigan UNESCO Global Geopark, looks beautiful as I had already experienced along the Uradome Coast. I found two companies that offered sea kayak tours in the vicinity of Amarube. I would take the kayak tour in Igumi, walk the coastline in Kasumi and look at the trains in Amarube before heading back home.
But not everything goes as planned.

One of the kayak companies wasn’t to be reached online and didn’t answer my calls. I know they are in business so I’m not clear about what went wrong. The other company did get back to me, but even though their activity schedule showed tours as late as end October, they told me they had to cut their season short because of high waves. That was only a few days before departure.

Ok. So plan B is to hire a car and visit a few waterfalls in the neighborhood. Good plan, but a few days before departure no cars were available.

Eventually I decided to go old school: use my feet and walk. The coastlines in Hamasaka and Kasumi would be my goal.

A pretty walk up.

The eeriest of the jizo statues.

Rewarding views on the top.

Literally getting out at sea. That's where I need to go.

Day 1.
After a lovely soak in Goshono-Yu in Kinosaki onsen I hopped on the train toward Amarube. I would pass the station though and get off at Hamasaka Station. The bay at Hamasaka is flanked by two small peaks: Mount Kannon to the east and an unnamed peak to the west.
Climbing these two peaks would give me a beautiful view of the rugged coastline and on the small villages in between lush nature.
A little rain was falling, but nothing to spoil the fun.
Alas, not everything goes as planned.

The bridge that I had to cross to get to the trail head of Mount Kannon was closed for reparations.
No biggie.
I could see another bridge about a kilometer away and decided to cross that one, do my loop hike of the mountain the other way around and then head for the western peak. That was probably a lucky move, as I think I might not have found the correct trail head if I headed in the direction I initially had planned. Going up was easy though, with a nice forest path littered with eerie jizo statues – a good thing as these make up for the lack of views along the way.
On the top of the mountain there is a temple which was very well maintained. Also the absolute top and the open space with views of the coastline are being well taken care off apparently. Not the same can be said about the way down. I really had to look for the beginning of the path and also along the way in sometimes had difficulties navigating. Many spiders, not so many as in Ibusuki though, blocked my way and most definitely tried to eat me (or at least bully me). The end of the trail - what initially was to be my starting point - literally gave out into the sea. A few dozen meters of stone hopping got me back to land. Interesting to say the least! But maybe a bit dangerous during high waves.

But all was well. The rain had stopped, the views were quite nice, the hike was going well.
I continued towards the western peak, walking along the shoreline of the small Shin-Onsen village which would take me to a lighthouse.
Only to found the road was closed because of the danger of falling rocks.
Not everything goes as planned.
But this time I was going to make it go as planned.

Now I usually don’t ignore the signs, even if I know that Japanese can be over cautious. But this time I didn’t care. I saw steel fences in place to keep off falling rocks and I saw I local pass the “do not cross sign” before me. I told myself I would turn back if things looked too dangerous.
But they didn’t. So I could go along as planned.

And I was very glad I did. Mount Kannon was pleasant, but this western peak, or at least the area around the lighthouse, was stunning. Beautiful views, steep stairs which made you feel like you were very high up while in reality it was about maybe 50m. Along the way to the top various spacious spots offered very nice views of the towns along the coastline.
I continued my loop towards Hamasaka Station, just in time before rain started pouring down.
Not everything went as planned, but I did feel lucky though.