Matsue + Amanohashidate

After having the lovely food and onsen spa at Tsuwano we moved along the coast to Matsue, a large city - the prefectural capital which is sat between 2 large lakes. We stayed in a large hotel (still japanese style room) which was very business like but suited the city we were in, the hotel was very close to the castle at Matsue which is the largest of the 12 remaining original castle towers in Japan originally built in 1611, great fun to go inside - but be careful, as walking up old and narrow stairs in small slippers not designed for size 11 feet is a bit tricky. There were a few people behind me who had slipper for lunch ! Gomen nasai (sorry).....sorry, sorry, oh bugger that I'll take them off it's easier !
We toured the city by bus and also by the waterways that run right through the city going right around the castle grounds, the boats are great fun as they have tops which are lowered to go under some of the bridges so everyone has to lie down low - great fun for the kids ! The city has many worthwhile sightseeing spots, we went to the old samurai residence (built in 1730) which gives a great look at a well preserved house - very small tatami rooms but lots of them. You realise that there was not much, if any soundproofing - you can understand why the toilets were outside ! We also stopped off at the large funky and modern art museum on the edge of one of the lakes - a great sunset viewspot, the kids got bored quickly inside but they enjoyed the outside sculptures in the grounds as they could climb on them (we think ;) ).
We only had the one day and night at Matsue as we moved on to the easily pronounced Amanohashidate (a naturally formed sandspit), which is one of the three most beautiful locations in Japan (and deservedly so in my humble opinion). We stayed in a huge holiday complex here, which had a fantastic view over the 3.6km spit also known as the 'Bridge to heaven' and the bay it sits across - very nice for an evening meal !
We walked across the sandspit and let the kids enjoy playing in the sand, which they loved - but we had to be careful as it is a no swimming area because of the numbers of jellyfish in the water (all sizes and shapes). It was very relaxing wandering along the sand, (we were lucky again as it was very quiet, as out of the normal Japanese holiday period)- watching the kids throw things at the jellyfish !

So that was our last location around the south of Japan and we returned to Tokyo on the shinkansen. I'll post some blogs of various bits and pieces such as food and the great trains as I sort through the pics.

---

---