加計と三段峡 Kake and Sandankyo

加計と三段峡 Kake and Sandankyo

Hello and welcome back to another video. It’s uh Sunday morning. Uh I’m in Hiroshima and today I’m going to buy some fish. So please come along with me and uh let’s see how it turns out. Okay, so this is the bus center in Hiroshima. So, I’ve already caught a train to Hiroshima station and a tram from there to the center of Hiroshima. So, this is step three of my journey. I hope these fish are worth it. So, after leaving Hiroshima, the bus heads north into some quite spectacular scenery like this. By the way, this river is the Otter River. It’s the main river ultimately that flows through Hiroshima City. The river is calm enough and quite placid today, but um after heavy rain, it can become quite ferocious. Okay, so it’s about an hour and 40 minutes since I got on the bus in Hiroshima. And well, I’ve just got off the bus and I’m here in a town in the northwest of Hiroshima Prefecture called Kake. This is where I’m going to buy my fish. So, let’s go and buy them. This is the sign for the fish shop. And well, if you can read Japanese, maybe that gives you a little bit of a clue. If not, well, hang on a few minutes. Okay, so this is me from the future. I did obviously go inside the shop and I actually did video my transaction, but unfortunately there were quite a few other people in the shop and most of them were chatting away. Now, fair enough, but that does make the video a little bit difficult to listen to. So, I’ve muted it and well, you have my commentary instead. All right, so I got my fish. I actually got four fish, in fact. Um, one to eat now and three for later. So, here’s the one to eat now. So, of course, this is not a real fish, but it’s a sweet in the shape of a fish called tayyaki. And there is a shop here in T which is really famous for them. Well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say. So, um, let’s eat. Yeah, they’re really good. I can say that now. The outside is quite crunchy, but then the inside is really fluffy. And then there’s a beautiful um filling of ankor, which is red pe red bean paste jam. So pretty good. Until 2003, there was actually a railway through Kake. The cab line linked Hiroshima and Sandango, which is a beautiful gorge just a little bit further up into the hills. It’s about 20 minutes or so by bus from here, I think, unfortunately. But uh I suppose inevitably given the number of passengers or lack of passengers more to the point the railway was closed in 2003. When I say closed it was actually truncated to link only Hiroshima and Kabet. It’s since been extended by two stations but even so it comes nowhere close to Kake anymore which is a real shame really. But I suppose that’s life. The only evidence that there was ever a station here at all is about 10 m of platform which has been kept and a tiny little bit of track just outside the car park where I am now. As I say, it’s a real shame. Anyway, back to fish. I bought three tayyaki for later because as I say, Sandango is really beautiful and it’s only about 20 minutes or so by bus from here. Well, having come all this way, as I say, it was 1 hour and 40 minutes on the bus. Having come all this way, it would be stupid not to go a little bit further. So, those three tayyaki are a snack to eat in Sandango. So anyway, the bus is in about uh 10 minutes or so. So let’s go and find the bus stop. Okay, so I’m just waiting for the bus now. Um I’m at the bus stop, but I have to say I got the bus times a little bit wrong, but um in a good way. I thought the bus was in 10 minutes. It’s actually in about 25 minutes. So, I’ve got 15 minutes to spare, which gives me time to just mention that if you ever come to Kake and it’s the right time of the year, then there is a quite spectacularly beautiful garden called Yoshi Mizuen. It’s only about 5 minutes walk from here, the bus stop, which is about 2 minutes walk from the Tayyaki shop. So, it’s not far basically, but it is well well well worth a visit. The only thing is that it’s only open two or three weekends a year when the red leaves are in season, but trust me, it’s well worth a visit. What I’ll do is I’ll put a few photographs and video from last year in this video now, just to give you a taster. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Okay, so this is Sandangor and I’m standing basically just about where the railway station used to be and unfortunately there’s basically no trace whatsoever of the station itself. If I remember correctly, it was actually quite a nice station, but um unfortunately it’s all gone now. The only thing that remains is a tiny little piece of line which is just there. So, let’s go and take a look at it. This is all there is to suggest that there was ever a station here. It’s quite sad really. All right. So, let’s take a walk down into Sandangor Gorge. So, as I said, Sandango is a gorge, which of course means there’s a river running through it. And it’s quite a beautiful river. The water is very, very clear. Now, I planned to have the uh the first of my tayaki down there. And maybe you can just see the river, but um maybe because this is summer, well, probably because this is summer, it’s busy with um canoist and paddle boarders. It’s great that the uh the valley is still quite used because the area around where the station used to be does actually look quite run down. But uh obviously the uh river being very popular means I have nowhere to eat my tayaki, but I’m sure I’ll find somewhere fairly soon. I’m not going to say that I’m scared because I’m not. But um there have been quite a few reports of bears further up in the uh in the gorge. Now I’m not scared because well one maybe because I’m stupid and I should be scared but uh apart from anything else there are quite a lot of people on the path at this point. So, uh, if we assume that, uh, bears are basically scared of noise, then, uh, we should be okay. I did just pass a lady with a bear bell on her rock sack, though, so obviously the threat is real. Actually, come to think of it, maybe uh carrying a bag of cakes around is not the best idea, no matter how popular the path might be at this point. Maybe I should eat these sooner rather than later. I’m sure you can see from uh this video, but the path is relatively narrow and on one side there is a fairly steep no a very steep no and almost sheer drop down to the river. So at this time of year, yeah, fair enough. The path is popular enough. Um, I’ve had to stop recording several times, in fact, because there have been people coming the other way. Um, but, uh, one thing it’s worth bearing in mind is that this gorge, Sankor, is one of the most popular and actually one of the most beautiful places for red leaf viewing in autumn. So imagine these paths when there are hundreds of people trying to pass. I’ve uh been here several times in red leaf season and um it can be a little bit hair raising Can you see that really beautiful waterfall just on the other side of the valley? I’ll try and take it with a little bit more zoom. I think Look at the uh beautiful color of the pool at the base of the waterfall too. It really is quite wonderful. Anyway, from here on is where the uh path starts getting a little bit more hair raising. I’m going to stay away from the edge, I think. The area to the left of the picture is called the patinoi or dragon’s mouth. I think it’s quite an appropriate name really. The force of the water here is really quite something. It was about 32° when I left Hiroshima this morning. Here up in the hills it’s about 27. So it is significantly cooler but I certainly wouldn’t say it’s cool. The name Sandangor means three-stage valley or three-stage gorge and it refers to the fact that there are three waterfalls in the valley. Um, I’m not sure how far I’m going to be able to go today and I’m certainly not going to be able to go to all of the waterfalls because there was a landslip I think actually earlier this year, maybe in winter, and the path is blocked. Actually, that’s another reason I’m not so worried about bears because they’re not so likely to be this far down the valley, this close to uh civilization. famous last words maybe, but uh that’s what I’m hoping. Anyway, let’s see how far we can go. You know, I can’t really believe I didn’t think of this sooner, but uh I’ve just thought of something I need to be worried about. Even more than bears, even more than snakes, for that matter. Ticks. There’s lots of uh wildlife here. I’m wearing shorts. I could be uh bitten by a tick. I need to be very careful here, I think. bitten by a tick or bitten by a bear. I wonder which one is uh less bad. There’s another nice open bit by the river just there where I could have gone sat on a rock and eaten my kayaki, at least one of them. But uh there are some children playing in the river so um no good. Let’s go a little bit further on. See if there is anywhere I can uh sit and take a break. In Japanese, there is a word shin. which means basically forest bathing. Now that doesn’t really make much sense in English, but what it equates to is getting out into nature and sort of enjoying the greenery. And well, Tandango is basically a perfect place for for doing that, especially on a beautiful afternoon like this one. It really is perfect. Once again, this would have been a perfect place to uh take a break and have one of my kayaki. But uh again there are people playing in the river. So uh another no go. I think I remember this place from uh coming in autumn before. This is always a real bottleneck. And just as ever, there’s a huge fall down to the water. Heat. Heat. This is not one of the main waterfalls, but uh guess what it’s called? Akadaki is the answer. And second question, guess what akadaki means. Well, if you guessed red waterfall, you would be correct. It is indeed a red waterfall. Standing here, I can just feel the uh the spray from the waterfall and it is remarkably refreshing. I wish I could sit in the waterfall for a while, but uh I have to catch the bus back unfortunately. So, Sandoor is much more spectacular than I remembered. Um, I think it’s been four or 5 years since I last came and well, I left it too long. I think especially on an afternoon like this, it is absolutely stunning. Now I would love to stay for longer. I would love to go further along the valley, but unfortunately there is a bus in 40 minutes and I think the next bus after that is 2 hours and 40 minutes. So realistically, I think today I should head back to the bus stop and ultimately head back to Hiroshima. I would, as I say, love to stay longer, but I can console myself with the fact that I definitely won’t be leaving it for four or 5 years before I come again. Hopefully, I’ll even be able to come in autumn when the red leaves are at their best. I can’t say I will enjoy the the crowds, but the autumn foliage will more than make up for that, I’m sure. So, anyway, I will speak to you when I get back to the bus stop. So, I’m back at the bus stop in time for the bus, which is good. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to eat my tayyaki, but in the end, that doesn’t really matter. I can eat them on the bus or I can even eat them at home tonight. It they won’t spoil. It’s fine. But, uh, I managed to do what I wanted to do today. I got the tayyaki and they really were superb. I, um, got to come to Sandango and, uh, well, I got to make this video and I hope very much you enjoyed it. Um, if you do go to Kake ever, then do buy some tayyaki because they are superb. And if you’re in Kake at the right time of year, do visit Yoshi Mizen because that is also superb. Also, whether you go to Kake or not, Santango is always worth a visit. It’s beautiful now in late summer, but it’s equally beautiful, no, more beautiful in um autumn when the red leaves are really, really quite spectacular. They really are something to see. Anyway, I think that’s about it for this video. So, uh thank you very much for watching. I do hope you enjoyed it and uh I hope to see you again in another video very soon. For now, though, from Sandoor, goodbye.

A bus journey from Hiroshima up to a small town called Kake, with an excellent shop for taiyaki, which are fish-shaped cakes. And then a short hike through Sandankyo Gorge, a spectacular beauty spot in the northwest of Hiroshima prefecture. A relaxing, wonderful day in nature- with some delicious food to boot.

#Hiroshima #BusJourney #JapanTravel #Taiyaki #HiddenGems