Japan Sea Coast Maji to Nima

 

From Maji, the village that has Kotogahama Beach, to Nima, the next settlement up the coast, there is no coastal road and so the road rises to cross over the headland.

Looking back down the coast I can see the coastline I have walked along for the past three days, with the tall chimneys at Gotsu, my starting point, just visible.

The narrow road through the forest is uninhabited for about 2k until the road drops down to the Shiono River.

This is the main river of Nima, but is not very big and starts nearby in the mountains around Iwami Ginzan.

I walk up to the mouth of the river to see the views before backtracking and heading into Nima Port

The previous post in this series on the Japan Sea Coast was on Kotogahama Beach.

Kotogahama Beach

 

After leaving the confines of Tomogaura there is a long stretch of nice beach that stretches about one and a half kilometrers.

Kotogahama Beach is actually one of the nicest beaches in Shimane, but because it is fairly remote with little in the way of parking spaces and the town of Maji has few accommodation options, it is not crowded even in the short summer season of Japanese beaches.

This was the third leg of my deep exploration walk along the coast in mid-October. Actually, there are much nicer photographs in a post I did on sunset at Kotogahama Beach.

Kotogahama Beach is famous for its "singing sand", that squeaks when you walk on it. Not far away is the Nima Sand Museum which was built to celebrate this sand.

From here I hopped on a train and headed home. The last two photos are from when I started the next leg of my walk a couple of weeks later.

The previous post was the Tomogaura Tomokan, a historical building.

Kotogahama Beach Sunset

Kotogahama is yet another of the fine beaches we have here in Iwami. It is located just before Niima. Like most of the beaches, there are few people. We went there to watch an evening concert in a small cafe on the beach.

The beach is home to "singing " sand that was the inspiration of the nearby Nima Sand Museum. Actually the sand squeaks as you walk on it, but if you have heard any J-Pop then you know singing and squeaking are synonymous.

Living as we do in a narrow valley, sunrise and sunset is not something available to us, so I spent a lot of time watching the sun go down.

Our friends cafe is called Chinakamame and is highly recommended if you are in the area during the summer.

The nearby sand museum devoted to sand and inspired by the sand of this beach was built by one of my favorite architects who is from the area. I recommend at least a visit to the outside.

While, in my opinion, the exhibits leave much to be desired, I do find the interior of the museum as photogenic as the outside, featuring, as it does, the world's largest sand timer

To see some more of the beaches of this area I suggest clicking Japan Sea Coast Walk