The JR Sanin Honsen line - Izumo Taisha and Matsue

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Section 2

The next morning we got up early at 6 o'clock to be able to catch the early train from Kinosaki to Tottori. The courtesy bus was not running at that time and the people from the ryokan were very kind and drove us to the train station to catch the first train on the JR Sanin Honsen line. Quite a lot of high school students got on as well and it was amusing to see how the boys got their pocket mirrors out and started fussing with their hair endlessly while the girls just chatted away appearing much more masculine than the boys.

It was quite windy and the JR Sanin Honsen line passes close to the sea and the occasional peek of the sea with the spray from the waves battering the black rocks resulted in a most stunning view. The Pacific coast of Japan paved from North to South with concrete blocks had been far from exciting, however, the mountainous Sea of Japan coast was spectacular and it must be the area where the old samurai films were set.

We ate a surprisingly nice breakfast in Tottori station and continued our trip to Izumo. From Izumo station we took the bus to the Izumo Taisha, the oldest Shinto shrine in Japan and still an important shrine dedicated to marriage. We had a nice walk over the grounds, took some pictures but I didn't feel the same romantic atmosphere that I was soon to experience at the Kasuga Taisha shrine in Nara or had experienced already at many other shrines I had come across during earlier trips. The atmosphere was much more businesslike which was amplified by the loads of (deserted) souvenir shops and fast food-like restaurants outside the shrine grounds.


We got back to the station and travelled a little back to Matsue where we were staying that night. We had booked the Hotel New Urban which had an onsen at the 4th floor with a view over beautiful Lake Shinji. While looking for a restaurant that appealed to us, we had wandered almost back to the station and in a little shabby area with several soap land parlours we found an izakaya style restaurant called Rokumonsen that served the type of food we had been looking for and it turned out to be a very nice restaurant with an own style and not just another franchise of a big restaurant chain.

The next day we bought a multi-pass and visited the castle which is one of the few remaining original medieval castles in Japan and from there we walked over to Lafcadio Hearn's residence. Lafcadio Hearn is better known in Japan as Koizumi Yakumo and is especially well-known to the Japanese for his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories. The residence is very well kept and has a nice garden which doesn't date back from the time Lafcadio Hearn lived there but was created by the father of the current owner as exercise. Finally we visited the samurai house which is just a short walk from the Lafcadio Hearn residence. It was worth the visit, but not exceptionally interesting to either of us at least even though I had read some of his books.

The local specialities include the tiny shizimi shellfish caught in Lake Shinji in the early morning.

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Photos

Izumo Taisha
Omikuji tied around a wire; good fortune will come true or bad fortune can be averted.

Ema at Izumo Taisha
Write your wish on the piece of wood and it will come true