Back to the Bridge

From Maiko to Midorigaoka along the Kinki Nature Trail

Firstly, apologies for the long absence. It proved to be more difficult to write and post from the UK than I thought. Now, I’m back in Japan and hope to get posting every two weeks as before!

My last walks in Japan were in autumn — a time of pleasant temperatures after the oppressive humidity of the summer. I came back to Japan this week to the dry cold, dead grass and crisp blue skies of Japanese winter. A change from the mild, muddy, still-green grass and cloudy skies of England.

The last walk I wrote about took us to the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, from the heart of Kobe with its shopping centres and East Asian tourists, past the shipyards of Mitsubishi and Kawasaki, the beach resort of Suma and finally to the old villa district of Maiko near to the bridge.

A quick hop on the bus took me back down to Maiko. A few snaps of the bridge in the early morning light while old ladies exclaimed “samui-ne” at the sudden breeze blowing up the Akashi Straits. I set off, following the long curve of beach and cafe-lined seaside road towards Asagiri.

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge from Okura Beach

Asagiri means “morning mist”. There was no mist this morning, but rather like San Fransisco Bay, this area is prone to mists and fogs when the air is still. In Okura Beach Park, there was another earthquake memorial.

Buried under this memorial is a time capsule with news and information about the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

From Asagiri, the Kinki Nature Trail loops inland to pass Akashi Municipal Planetarium, the start of my Japan Standard Time line walk. I had thought about just following the Inland Sea coast, but I wanted more nature, less suburbs and industry, and the Inland Sea coast sadly doesn’t provide this:

Beyond Asagiri, the Kobelco Steelworks are visible

The Inland Sea of the imagination is James Bond You Only Live Twice, but the reality along the Hyogo coast looks more like Black Rain. Industrial history and scenery has its place, but after the Tokaido I needed a break from that.

Clockwise from top left: Taisho era building, French car, kindergarten sports day, Akashi Planetarium

Before I finally turned inland, away from the coast for the final time, I stopped to eat an early lunch on the sea wall. An easy-to-eat snack bread from the convenience store, it turned out to have an enormous air bubble inside — do they do this deliberately?

Twenty percent air bubble snack bread

I followed the Taniyagi River upstream, in the shallow sand and silt, coots bobbed and turtles splashed lazily off beds of waterweed. Slowly the river became more and more overgrown, kuzu vine trailing closer and closer to the water’s edge until it was a mere trickle. I passed a series of near-empty reservoirs as the land began to rise away from the coast.

A pair of breast-like circles on the map that I had spent a long time puzzling over turned out to be concrete domes for training horses in a park. The road beyond was thickly covered with dust from quarries. I passed a neatly-groomed cemetery with an expensive-looking water feature — a long cascading line of granite steps.

Then I was out into open farmland. A world of smartly-furrowed fields, old fire-watch towers and recently-cut rice dry paddy. Between these, local shrine-festivals drummed and cheered their way headed and followed by light-sabre wielding guides. It was the beginning of harvest time.

A passing procession for the local shrine

After several miles of this farmland, I really wanted to take a break and sit down. I had to suffice with leaning against the wall of a convenience store to eat and drink. Darkness was closing in, I began to worry I wouldn’t make it to the station before dark — and I had no torch.

A final slog over a hill, past a shrine and then a strange noise. Not dog. Wild boar? But no, there was something familiar about the sound and the stench that wafted uphill from the Cheshire countryside — cows. From the top of the hill I could see the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge once again, and just about, the town where I live.

From left: Akashi Kaikyo Bridge through spiders' webs, stone shrine torii, wooden shrine toriis

I made it to the station, one I had passed on my Japan Standard Time walk, just as it got dark. There was a feeling in the air: the earlier darkness, the cut rice in the fields, the harvest festival processions. Winter was coming.