TID Travel Journal "Toyooka Travelogue"   By TID, Autumn 2009 update

In this issue I would like to introduce Toyooka City, located in the northern part of Hyogo Prefecture. Toyooka is made up of six municipalities; Toyooka, Kinosaki, Tekeno, Hidaka, Izushi and Tanto, which merged in 2005. It has a land area of 698 square kilometers, which is ranked first in Hyogo Prefecture and has a population of 89,000 people. Main industries in Toyooka are agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism. The local industry is well known for making all sorts of bags and it is one of the largest bag producing centers in Japan. Izushi porcelain and Tajima silk crepe from olden times are also produced. There are many tourist spots in the city, namely Kinosaki Hot Springs, the Homeland for the Oriental White Stork, Genbudo Park, the Izushi Castle Ruins, the Kannabe Ski Slopes, etc.
At the end of August, I visited Toyooka City to get information and visited some famous tourist spots. I would like to talk about the places I visited. I took the special express train "Hamasaka I" from Akashi Station, which filled up at Himeji Station. The scenery I saw through the window was splendid. I could see the rice fields tinged with yellow, green mountains and blue skies. I got off at Ebara Station and changed to the bus for Kannabe. I got off at Uemura Bokenkan and visited Uemura Naomi Bokenkan (Adventure Hall).

Uemura Naomi Memorial Museum

First I watched a video entitled "Sugao no Uemura Naomi-Yume hateshinaku, Ai Kagirinaku" (the real Uemura Naomi -dream endlessly, love freely). This introduces the life of this adventurer, who was born in Hidaka-cho (now part of Toyooka City) in 1941. He began climbing in college on the hope that mountaineering would increase his self-confidence. While still in his 20's, he had climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro (Africa), Aconcagua (South America), Mont Blanc (Europe) and the Matterhorn (Europe) alone, and he was a member of the first Japanese expedition to climb Mt. Everest (Asia). He climbed Mt. McKinley alone on February 12, 1984 and was the first climber to it in winter in the world. But unfortunately, after his last contact on February 13, he disappeared. In this manner, he conquered the peaks of five continents.
In the permanent exhibition gallery, about 280 items, including stones that Uemura collected from the peaks of five continents, are on display. There are arts and crafts, and picture cards that he got at the destinations. Outside the hall, there is a three meter high, ten meter wide climbing wall. I felt the display is well arranged so it is easy to understand Uemura's active records. So this museum is worth seeing.

Open:	9:00 - 17:00 (Last entry: 16:30)
Closed:	Wednesdays (Thursday if Wednesday falls on a national holiday) December 28-January 4
Admission:	Adults: ¥500, Over 65 years old: ¥250, Senior High School Students: ¥200, Junior High and Elementary School Students: ¥150
Access:	(bus) Take Zentan Bus from JR Ebara Station on San'in Line and get off at Uemura Bokenkan-mae.
Address:	785 Ibu, Hidaka-cho, Toyooka
Tel:	0796-44-1515
URL:	http://www3.city.toyooka.lg.jp/boukenkan/index.html

Then I moved on to Izushi by taking a connecting bus from JR Ebara.

Izushi

Izushi is a castle town that prospered especially in the Edo period. It is called the Little Kyoto of Tajima. There are many nostalgic merchant houses and historic sites such as Shinkoro (the old drum tower), the ruins of Izushi Castle, the house of Izushi's chief retainers, the old sake cellar, and its Meiji Period architecture. Izushi Eirakukan, the oldest playhouse in Kansai region, closed in 1964 but was repaired last year. This hall is used for concerts, plays and yose (a traditional Japanese variety show). Izushi is very famous for soba noodles and there are many soba shops in town. Many tourists strolled around and visited souvenir shops or soba shops when I was there.

URL:	http://www.izushi.co.jp/

I went to Toyooka in the evening by bus and stayed overnight in a hotel.

Next day I visited the Toyooka, Genbudo and Kinosaki areas. I took a bus with specially designed kaban (bag) on the body for Homeland for the Oriental White Stork.

Homeland for the Oriental White Stork

This homeland was built to provide a place to study the Oriental White Stork and the environment so that humans and storks can co-exist. In 1964, the number of oriental white storks decreased to eleven and artificial breeding began. In 1971 the last wild stork in Toyooka died in captivity. In 1985, six young birds were donated by Khabarovsk Territory, Russia, one of Hyogo's sister-states. As of August 8 this year, the number of living storks increased to 138 due to the efforts of related personnel and organizations.
The Toyooka Municipal Ecomuseum Center Kounopia consists of an exhibition corner, a study (reference) room, a video theater, an exhibition and practice room. In the park (165 ha), there is a protected zone, a training zone, and an observation and study zone. Visitors can see white storks in viewing cages. When I visited, eleven white storks were pecking at the wetlands searching for feed, walking around and flying. Many families were also there.

Open:	9:00 - 17:00
Closed:	Mondays (Tuesday if Monday falls on a national holiday), December 28-January 4
Admission:	Free
Access:	15 minutes ride on Zentan Bus from JR Toyooka Station for Konotorinosato Koen
Address:	127 Shounji, Toyooka
Tel:	0796-23-5666
URL:	http://www.stork.u-hyogo.ac.jp

Kaban Street

To draw attention, the Yoida Shopping Street shopkeepers named it Kaban Street because the City of Toyooka is one of the largest production sites of bags in Japan. Even shops that don't sell bags cooperate with this movement and display bags in their shop windows. I was surprised to see bags in the window of a local bank. Three vending machines of bags can also be found in the city, on Kaban Street, the platform of JR Toyooka Station, and in front of the Homeland for the Oriental White Stork bus stop.

Address:	Yoida Shotengai, Chuo-cho, Toyooka

In the afternoon, I got to Genbudo Station by JR train from Toyooka. I called up Genbudo Kanko Co. to take me by boat for a fee. The boat came a few minutes later and I crossed the Maruyama River to visit Genbudo Park. The fee was ¥300 one way.

Genbudo

Genbudo is lava flow from a volcanic eruption that happened about 1.6 million years ago. It formed columnar basalt joints as the waves washed over it. A cave has formed from people mining the rocks. The beauty of the joints is one of the great mysteries of the world. It has also been designated as a national natural monument. Visitors can see five caves: Genbudo, Seiryudo, Byakkodo, Minami-suzakudo and Kita-suzakudo.

Genbudo Museum

In the Genbudo Park area, there is the Genbudo Museum where various kinds of magnificent minerals including jewels, curious stones and fossil remains collected from around the world are on display. Besides on the third floor Toyooka Kiryu (Willow) Handiwork Museum is set up. The willow works has a history of 1200 years. Historical willow works products are also on display.

Open:	9:00 - 17:00 (9:00-17:30 in summer) Open year round
Closed:	Beginning and end of the year, mid-August, exhibit rearrangement periods
Admission:	Adult (Jr. High School Student and over): ¥600 Child (Kindergarten & Elementary School Student): ¥300
Address:	1362 Akaishi, Toyooka
Tel:	0796-23-3821
URL:	http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~genbudo/

Then I crossed the Maruyama River by boat again and returned to JR Genbudo Station where I rode the train to Kinosaki.

Kinosaki

Kinosaki is a hot springs town and has a 1300 year history as one of the famous hot spring resorts in Japan. The Kinosaki Hot Springs Resort was built along the Otani riverside. When I visited there some tourists wearing yukata (Japanese traditional informal cotton kimono) and geta (Japanese old-style wooden footwear) were walking along the street. There are many hotels and ryokans with onsen bathrooms, however, 7 public baths which are very popular and used by tourists and citizens. I visited Mugiwara-zaiku Denshokan Museum (The Wheat Straw Crafts Museum) and Kinosaki Bungeikan (Kinosaki Literature Museum).

Lastly I went up to the top of Mt. Daishi by the Kinosaki Onsen Ropeway in 7 minutes. It commands a fine view of the Kinosaki Onsen Street, the Maruyama River and surrounding mountains and the Sea of Japan. On my way back to Kinosaki Station I visited Otagaki Shiro Museum located near the Sanroku Station of the ropeway. Mr. Otagaki was born here and became the first President of Kansai Electric Power Co. Ltd. in 1951. He was very famous for constructing the Kuroyon Dam and Water Electric Power Station No. 4 on Kurobe River in Toyama Prefecture using 50 billion and 10 million workers in seven years, overcoming a great number of difficulties. The dam and the power station completed in 1963 were the largest in Japan at that time.

As the evening drew to a close, I made my way to JR Kinosaki Station and rode on the super express train for Akashi. Next time I go to Kinosaki I look forward to staying at a spa ryokan.

I recommend staying at Kinosaki Hot Springs if you have time. On this visit I had a wonderful time visiting some interesting tourist sights and learning about Toyooka.