Japan (Dec 2007) - Part 3

Part 3: Mie, Kii Hanto, Ise-shi, Matsusaka-gyu, Ise-ebi, Toba

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Dec 24: Ise-shi - the drive

The start of our 1,500km trek across Japan started with our trip from Tokyo to Ise-shi (伊勢市) in the Mie prefecture to the south of Kyoto and Nara. The area almost completely rural and roughly marks the center of Japan and in our opinion contains some of the hidden sites and best views in the country. Famous for the origins of the ninja, poet Matsuo Basho (松尾 芭蕉), hundreds of sacred sites, foundations of religion in Japan, vast waterfalls, Mikimoto pearls and of course - several of the true culinary delights of Japan including breed of the Wagyu beef (Matsusaka) as well as the Ise-ebi lobster.

The trip to Ise-shi from Tokyo started with a ride on the JR Tokaido Shinkansen to Nagoya Station - the largest train station in the world, sitting a little over halfway from Tokyo to Kyoto on the Tokaido line. Our route:

sourced from Google Earth

From there, a change to the Kintetsu line, a slower local train took us south. Although adjacent to the coast, we didn't really see any coastline for the hour and a half ride through Tsu City, Matsusaka (famous for its beef) and finally at Ise-shi. Our bullet train the 700 series Tokaido Shinkansen - one of the fastest in Japan with an avg speed of 225kmh:

I can't wait till they upgrade these to the JR Maglev at 581kmh - that would mean Tokyo to Kyoto in an hour.

The bento box/lunch:

We then had to switch to a local Kintetsu railway:

Renting a car in Tokyo seemed to be a stupid idea with all the traffic, but on the way down to Ise-shi, we realised that our choice of renting car in the rural areas of Japan might have been the crazier thing to do. We were however saved by the GPS system (which although 100% in Japanese) was manageable to get us to all our destinations. The 5km drive to our ryokan through Ise city gave us a pretty good idea of the slow pace of life in the region. The GPS system helped most of the way, but once we got up close and personal with the ryokan area it was pretty much a guessing game... The area we were driving in (we started at the top where Oishiya is and drove on two routes:

The first was along the coast towards Toba and beyond for about 20 miles before turning around. The second was through Matsuo (near Toba on the map), and then South on Route 167 down about 35 miles to Kashikojima, then another 40km back to Ise on Route 32 straight through the mountains.
Our supercar:

Reaching Oishiya (大石屋) , our ryokan a little under an hour before the check-in time of 3pm, we were greeted by this man:

He was one of the managers of the ryokan and was extremely helpful and friendly. He showed us the way to the parking lot and then actually drove us back the 300m or so from the parking area to the ryokan. By then we were hungry, so we popped next door to seek out some of the local samplings of food from the peninsula..

A view from our room:

The traditional udon is typically served in a bowl of hot soup or broth. However, Ise is famous for its own rendition serving it in a rich soy sauce based soup; so simple but yet so good!!:

After our check-in, we headed straight back out and took a drive south towards Toba (鳥羽) along the jagged Kii peninsula (紀伊半島) where we got a taste of some spectacular views of the ocean and its bays:

A quiet cafe on our route:Our awesome GPS:

A local convenience store:As dusk sets in:

Driving around:

We passed the Mikimoto pearl center in Toba but it looked drab and uninteresting, opting for the route of discovery. Two hours later, we were back at our ryokan - and a quick 100m walk away was Meito-iwa; a beautiful sight at sunset, even with the strong winds and heavy waves:

Dinner at ryokans usually come in the form of a kaiseki course meal offering fine local delicacies:

The sashimi platter:

Deep fried puffer fish / fugu:

Being in Ise, we got some of their ultra-fresh kaki (oysters) in a nabe:

and of course, the Ise-Ebi (伊勢海老):

The fruit platter:

The local sake:

The private onsen/hotspring (not in the room though):

The ryokan had 2 rotenburos (private baths) which could be used if noone else was using it..

Dec 25:

Breakfast the next day was equally as heavy:

A superb ryokan with great views, great food and some of the best surroundings one could ask for.

Meito Iwa in the day:

Some big big 150 year old oyster shells (they are real!) weighing close to 230kg:

Checking out at 10am, we planned for a good 5 hour drive until the train to Kyoto departed.. and of course, a good road trip was in order. Starting off south again along route 23, we headed west at Toba city and headed into the wilderness of the peninsula. Although not quite in the center of it, a little further to the south west are a collection of temples and worship sites of the Shingon sect of Buddhism, the dominant religion of Japan making this one of the most religious areas of the country. While a trip to a place like Koya-San (高野山) would have been ideal on this trip, the drive down the peninsula and into the mountains would take a little too long for this part of the itinerary... nonetheless, the area we were headed to now was Isobe and then further on to Kashikojima, a fishing port with nothing much else aside from fisherman and a few shops here and there.

Some photos on the way through Toba and Kashikojima:

The drive on route 167 was one of the highlights of the trip - driving into valleys, around mountains and across pristine bodies of water. Few cars, no traffic lights and long stretches of road, tunnels through mountains made the drive one I would do again. To make things even more interesting, every once in a while we would venture off the beaten track to national parks or 'areas of interest' as designated by one of our maps and end up with more spectacular landscapes.

One such place was Amanoiwato (天の岩戸), situated in the Iseshima national park and actually part of our drive back from Toba on a different route towards Ise-shi. Straight out of a horror movie where a group of people drive to a beautiful campsite and end up killed by the locals, Amanoiwato would be a beautiful place and we would have stayed longer if we had not been one of 2 small groups of people - 2km into the forest. Nonetheless, spectacular scenery was found here:

The 30-40km from Toba back to Iseshi took us through winding roads and was some of the greatest nature routes I have ever been through, comparable to very few places I can remember. Even with the 50kph speed limits imposed, driving a Fiorano through these roads would have been almighty.

We finally took a rest after 3 hours of driving with our cultural stop at Ise-jingu (伊勢神宮), arguably the holiest of all shrines in Japan and extremely popular with the locals especially at the end of the year. The outer shrine (Geku) is close to the train station but our first stop is the more magnificent of the two - the inner shrine (Naiku). The expansive compound was impressive from the get go with this bridge view and landscape:A few more photos:

After our visit, we got hungry and sighted this street just adjacent:

The shishamo man:

A shigure (しぐれ).. but no ordinary bun... the filling....:

Is no other than Matsusaka beef..

Being in a region of great food, how could we resist...

Some grilled hamaguri (clams), hotate (scallops) and top shell:

Ise-ebi, Matsuzaka beef and some white fish sushi:

We left Ise that afternoon and headed for Kyoto... it was unfortunate we did not stay an extra couple of days. It would have been interesting to drive further into the peninsula and into the mountains. We hope to drive all the way around Route 42 at some point - not that we've done the drive, but it should parallel or even exceed a drive up and down Highway 1 around Monterey, or say, Chapman's Peak in South Africa...For anyone interested, I think the ideal drive would be starting from Matsusaka or Ise, down the same route we took to Kashikojima, then Route 260 towards Funagoshi, before connecting back to 42 - venturing into the mountainous areas around Nara, and then head all the way down the peninsula past Shingu. Stopping in Kushimoto for a night, then head directly North for Koyasan via Route 371, then head West to end at Wakayama city.

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