Kamaihama

On the hill, a house built inside a tree sixteen metres tall, with an internal staircase.

You climb the hill above the bay and go inside a tree: a tabunoki, a Japanese bay tree about sixteen metres tall, inside which a house has been built with a spiral staircase, an observation terrace halfway up over the open sea and, at the top, a small room in cypress wood. It was the set of an advert for canned beer. Below, the bay is closed off by a breakwater and the water is still.

A small bay within Kumihama, sheltered by a breakwater: calm water, a gently sloping seabed, fine white sand. On the hill above stands the tree house, built inside a tabunoki of about sixteen metres.

ℹ️ ⚠️ Access is the real cost: from Shōtenkyō Station it is eighteen minutes by bus to the Kamai bus stop, plus ten minutes on foot. ⚠️ The beach has facilities only in July and August. You can swim, wander among the rocks and fish from the same spot. All the sources report the same impression, that it feels like a private beach, because few people get there.

🚉 蒲井 · 8 min walk

Sources: uminokyoto.jp · uminokyoto.jp · kyotango.gr.jp

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