Amanohashidate

photo by 808PhatBeats · CC0

photo by kanesue · CC BY 3.0

When you look between your legs, sky and sea swap places: the view is called ‘flying dragon’.

A spit of sand covered by about 6,700 pine trees crosses Miyazu Bay for 3.6 kilometres, between 20 and 170 metres wide: it is one of the ‘Three Views of Japan’ together with Matsushima and Miyajima, a ranking compiled in the seventeenth century and never questioned since. The traditional way to admire it is matanozoki: you bend forward and look upside down, between your own legs, from the viewpoints at either end. Turned upside down like this, the sand bridge seems to rise towards the sky, and that is why, from the south side, it is called the ‘view of the dragon in flight’ (飛龍観).

The name, ‘bridge to heaven’, comes from a legend: the deity Izanagi is said to have built a ladder to reach his partner Izanami at night, and the ladder fell into the sea while he was sleeping and turned to stone in this shape. The sand built up naturally where two opposing currents meet in the bay.

ℹ️ The sandbar is public, and you can always cross it on foot or on a hired bicycle, free of charge. The south viewpoint, Amanohashidate View Land, is seven minutes' walk from the station, and you go up by chairlift or by monorail: 1,000 yen from junior high upwards, 450 for elementary school children. The opening hours change across six seasonal bands (8:30–18:30 from 16 July to 15 September, 9:00–17:00 from 16 November to 15 February, 17:30 or 18:00 in the rest of the year), and the ticket office closes thirty minutes earlier. The north viewpoint (Kasamatsu Park, for the 昇龍観) has its own ropeway, which you pay for. ⚠️ The queue is for the monorail, not the chairlift.

🚉 Amanohashidate · 13 min walk

Sources: amanohashidate.jp · something-plus.com · uminokyoto.jp

All series · Open the map