Tsuwano

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We left Hiroshima and had to take the train north towards Hamada City to reach Tsuwano which is south of Hamada City. The journey there was on a train that was not Shinkansen but was still comfortable and the views from the train were spectacular. The journey was made through some beautiful mountainside and the colour of the scenery was wonderful.

Tsuwano is a small town with a population of 9,000 people. It is known as little Kyoto in Japan with its beautiful feudal style buildings and castle situated on top of a mountain. It is also known for its Washi paper, Sake breweries and there local steam train that runs still once a day.

We arrived in Tsuwano at 11:00am and went straight to the visitors Information office. The people in there are very helpful and nice but do not speak very good English so have your Japanese book ready. We were offered whether we would like to stay in a western style hotel or have something more traditional. We decide that something traditional would be fitting so we stayed in a Ryokan. It cost around 45 pounds each.

A Ryokan is a traditional Japanese guest house, it is family run and usually has a rustic vibe with it's tatami's and rice paper walls. The Ryokan that we stayed in for the night was owned by a really nice family that helped us settle in with green tea and sweets.

The stay also included a traditional evening meal and breakfast that was really good and highly enjoyable. I would recommend this type of stay to anyone. It was amazing.

After we settled into the Ryokan we decided to try and walk the mountain and go and have a look at the castles ruins. The walk is very hard so be warned, I was blowing hard about halfway up but there is a rest area with some beautiful views and great buildings. The ruins are not all that worth it after getting up there but I would say go up to the half way point for the view.

We came down the mountain and went for a walk around the town which is stunning. The walk down the main street is joined by a small running river full of the biggest Koi Carp that I have ever seen in my life. We followed the road to the west and found a open Sake brewery to taste the local goods - it was really good. After that we went to see the local steam train in action which is deemed a quite spectacle by the locals.

We went back to the Ryokan and had a tasty evening meal and a good nights rest ready for the next days travel. This town was lovely and I would say that if you want to experience traditional Japan then I would recommend it.

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