From Awaji to Dorogawa
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- Weather: Started overcast, then rainy, but warm-ish
- Ride: an hour or so of highway to get past Kobe, then nice windy forest roads.
- Stay: Hot Spring Hotel Marubun; very nice! Owner let us park bikes in a shed next door.
Set the alarm for 5am, but didn’t really get going till nearly 6:30. Quickly went across the road from the accommodation to check out the local shrine while sipping a coffee. It wasn’t too far down the road until we got onto the highway, which was mostly clear except for a small section through Kobe which had heavy traffic. Some interesting views of industrial facilities, harbours, and a couple of big bridges.
Once off the highway we stopped at a conbini for breakfast and a second coffee and then fueled up ready for the twisties. The roads were still dry so we could enjoy the first stretches of roads with our first stop being a shrine and waterfall. The complex was a lot larger and varied than expected and we spent a bit of time wandering about. The top waterfall had a couple of chains dangling in it, presumably for monks to climb up into the waterfall for mediation.
The next stop was a lookout tower, but prior to reaching it there was another one which we quickly stopped off at for a picture, but then turned into a coffee-stop was well. I had thought the top was just a lookout, but it was a tiny restaurant and the people in it were very friendly and chatty, offered to let me take some pictures and gave me some local wild cherries. So I ordered a coffee and sat down for a few minutes. One of the ladies in the restaurant rides a 125cc super-cub and showed me a picture of her on a local rindo.
We missed the next lookout tower – I was trying to be sneaky and went past the stairs leading up to it hoping that there would be another path to it further up the road. But the next path off the road just lead to another shrine. This one to a rain god, so I asked him not to bless us too much today!
Then it was just more stunning roads through beautiful scenery, but unfortunately the rain slowly started to come in, as Ben had predicted. We reached a town called Koya by lunchtime, where Ben had picked out a restaurant, and it turned out to be the seat of a particular sect of buddism, so there were tons of shrines and temples and impressive gate houses all over town. After lunch (katsu-don for me) we walked around a bit checking out the various sights.
By the time we finished it was a lot later than we thought and the rain had really started to settled in, no very heavy yet, but enough to make us abandon our plans for an extended loop of roads, so we headed straight to the accommodation in a place called Dorogawa.
The accommodation, the Hot Spring Hotel Marubun, is a really nice onsen hotel and the proprietor let us park our bikes undercover in a nearby shed/garage. After checking in we had a cup of tea in our rooms and now I’m heading off to sight-see a local cave.
As the weather was a bit meh I took an umbrella and headed out in my trusty Birkenstock’s to where Google Maps said the cave was. Ben reckoned it was a 10 minute walk or so. I took my time, checking out some local shrines, and then I got to the cave. Or rather, the bottom of the mountain! As Google had already predicted, the little monorail leading up to the cave was already closed for the day, so up up up I went, climbing the many stairs up the side of the mountain.
I finally reached the top, slightly out of breath, not really believing the cave would still be open, but it was. There were no more guided tours for the day, but, despite looking a bit askance at my choice of footwear, they let me buy a ticket and go into the cave.
It was a fairly standard japanese limestone cave. On the small side, with some stalactites and stalacmites, all lit up with differently coloured lights. Due to the constant lighting and damp conditions it’s quite overgrown with mosses, which is a shame. As I got out I chatted to a girl who had also been in the cave. We ended up going into the cafeteria to get out of the storm and tried the local cider, which was very nice. She was waiting for a couple of her friends who were, presumably, making their way up the mountain in what was rapidly becoming a full-on storm.
I eventually excused myself and headed back down the mountain, declining the very nice offer of the cave staff to give me a ride down in the monorail. I made it back down quite a bit quicker than up, did a bit more sight-seeing around town, and headed back to our accommodation for a well-deserved onsen and dinner. After dinner we took another short stroll around town to check it out lit up with traditional lanterns.
