Hmmm. our plans for today are in fact to walk around the town of Shirahama, and pay the city of Wakayama a visit before heading to Kobe to meet my friend, Yumi. Its a pretty long train ride to Shirahama... took about 2.5hrs. and we've got to change trains at Osaka station to the trains heading for Wakayama Prefecture. Think for most, Shirahama will be pretty foreign sounding... but we happen to come across this town in the midst of our research... and it seems like a very interesting and beautiful town. and i must say that i was really not disappointed by it. and u don't see lots of foreign tourists around the place.... and naturally the 'broken' japanese & broken english have to be used. (whoops!!!)
A little about Shirahama. is a town located in Nishimuro District, Wakayama, Japan.
On March 1, 2006 the town of Hikigawa, from Nishimuro District, was merged into Shirahama.
As of September 1, 2007, the town has an estimated population of 23,180 and a density of 115 persons per km². The total area is 201.04 km².
as the JR train station is pretty far from the town center, we bought a day bus pass for 1000 円 to allow us to get around the town. and this proofs to be really useful coz the sights in Shirahama tend to be a little far from each other. Bus is a very good way for pple like us to get around if we're greedy to see all the sights in 1/2 a day. yeah yeah... u can say we're crazy... but this is the best way to travel. hee hee....
Shirahama is a resort town on the south coast of Wakayama Prefecture. Its beaches are white sand, imported from Australia. and the beach... oh my goodness... is juz beautiful. pity its autumn and the waters were really cold... otherwise i dun mind dipping my feet in it.
take a look at the pictures and u know how pretty it is.
White sandy beach
Hilda & Sihui
Me & my sis
Shirahama is also known for its hot springs. we visited the Shirara-yu. initially we wanted to visit Shirahama's most famous onsen, saki-no-yu. unfortunately it was a wednesday, and this particular onsen rest on wednesday. this is famous coz the onsen is in the open air. meaning that as u're immersed in the hot waters, u get to see the full view of the sea!!! anyway we had to settle for the 2nd best, that's Shirara-yu. i must say its pretty nice too... coz it cost us 300円 and becoz we forgot to bring out towels, we had to spend another 200 円 for the tiny towel that can't help to cover much of the body except ur face... hahaha...
After Onsen
anyway it was nice... and the ladies that frequent such publich baths are mostly the obasans. aunties lah....and u can't stay too long in the hot tub... coz u'll feel dizzy.
Self portriat
we had a hard time looking for food. and i must say if any of u ever want to visit Shirahama... don't visit the town on a wednesday. seems like wednesday is a rest day for majority of the shops! anyway we finally found a shop that was open for business and we had ramen. our 1st taste of Japanese ramen in this trip.
Ramen for lunch
after the ramen, we decided to stroll to view Engetsu (円月島). A small island in Shirahama bay (20 minutes walk from the mean beach to get in front of it).
We walked on this to get a good picture of the Engetsu
A rock formation with a hole in the middle allows in some days to see the Sun set through it. But we saw it in the bright afternoon sunlight. but its nice....
This is Engetsu. it more beautiful @ sunset
following that we took the bus to view Sandanbeki (三段壁).
Sandanbeki (三段壁)
50 meters in height, these breath-taking cliffs can be found on the south shore of Senjojiki. Long, long ago, these cliffs were used as a look-out point from which swarms of fish and passing ships were easily spotted. The face of the cliffs extends 2㎞ from south to north. Here is where one of nature's spectacular sights can be seen, the ocean's black current unleashing wave after wave and sending them crashing up against the cliff.
The jaw-dropping cliffs
The other side of the jaw-dropping cliffs
its really nice. but we did not take the glass elevator to the bottom to take a look at the cavern. coz it cost 1200円 to go down. its too expensive.
Saw this samurai costume there... decided to take a picture with it
after sandanbeki, we hop onto the bus and head back to the Shirahama JR station. we decided to travel to wakayama city to walk around. however, on the train we were dead tired and decided to give Wakayama city a miss and continue on to Osaka to change trains to Shin-Osaka, so that we could take the Shinkansen to Shin-kobe to take another train to Sanomiya where we were going to meet my friend, Yumi.
its been like close to 1.5years since i last saw Yumi. She came about 2years ago to Singapore for 1 year of school exchange in NTU. and that was when we got to become friends. and i must say that having return to Japan, she has change her fashion to blend into the Japanese society. hahaha... she is now currently working for a pharmaceutical company. we were really happy to meet each other and did some catching up. and she brought us to eat Kobe Beef!!! Its my 1st time eating Kobe beef. Yumi's 1st time too.
i must say that i was really surprised at how the Japanese eat Kobe Beef. Coz they eat it raw, grilled. and we tried the raw beef.
this is how raw kobe beef looks like
posing with the beef
it was really really good. i mean when u chew on it, u can't really taste that raw beef taste nor could u taste any metallic taste. it was really really good.
this is how the grilled kobe beef look like with the veggies
i cannot remember the shop that Yumi brought us to. but it had a really nice ambience.
the happy food is already in our stomaches hee hee......
after dinner, we had to say goodbye to Yumi.
@ Sanomiya train station
the 3 of us were heading back to Osaka. we have to do some packing tonight & check the train schedules... coz tomorrow we'll be heading to Kyoto. =D
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