Visit HYOGO

In Kunimi no Mori Park, everyone can have fun interacting with the natural world, and you can learn about the importance of nature here. It offers the people of the prefecture a place for rich encounters between people and nature, and between people, as a hub for learning about the natural environment, forestry preservation activities, and exchanges with cities. There’s a 1,100 meter-long track through the forest (mini-monorail), connecting the foot of the mountain with the top, ensuring that everyone can access the mountain’s summit and making this a nature-experience facility that considers universal design. The park also runs nature experience programs, mainly on the weekends.

You will need an advance reservation to ride the monorail/for group use.

In April 2015, Nishiwaki City launched the Nishiwaki Gourmet Development Citizen Workshops. Anyone from the city could attend, especially the proprietors of eateries within the city, and they worked on developing “Nishiwaki gourmet” using local ingredients. The participants came up with menus based on a variety of ideas, and after an online survey, it was decided that the new local gourmet dish would be roast beef made from Kurodasho wagyu cattle.

After this, 15 eateries got involved, each creating their own original Nishiwaki roast beef menus. The Nishiwaki roast beef that they had created made its debut in the “Hospitality Event in Nishiwaki, the Naval of Japan” held on February 13 and 14, 2016, making this dish a popular option in these eateries.

Fukusaki Town in Hyogo Prefecture is known as the “yokai town” (yokai are creatures that appear in Japanese folklore). Tsujikawayama Park is a particularly popular location in this town.

In this park, you’ll find the kappa brothers Gataro and Gajiro, beloved by the people of the town. Kappa are mythical water-dwelling creatures, and Gataro appears in “Kokyo Nanajunen” (Seventy Years of My Hometown), a book written by the folklorist Kunio Yanagita, who was originally from this town. The book recollects the author’s time living by the Tsujikawa River in Fukusaki when he was young, and his own life.

Gataro, the older kappa brother, is immobile beside the pond because the plate on his head has dried out, while the younger brother Gajiro emerges from the water every 15 minutes (0 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes) between 09:00 and 18:00! His figure, suddenly popping up with a splash, will surely give you a surprise.

And Gajiro also comes and goes between the station and park through a secret tunnel...

There are eyewitness reports of Gajiro in front of JR Fukusaki Station too.

“Yokai benches,” with unique yokai statues, are also dotted around the park. Tsujikawayama Park is a place that everyone, regardless of their age or gender, can enjoy. Try heading on a fun yokai hunt, walking around and discovering which yokai you can find together with your travel companions.

This memorial museum was established in 1975, aiming to honor Kunio Yanagita, an author of numerous works, including Nochinokari Kotobanoki and Tono Monogatari (“The Legends of Tono”), who was known as the “father of Japanese folklore studies” (recipient of the Order of Culture and first honorary citizen of Fukusaki Town), and the Matsuoka family, who were active in fields such as medicine, ancient Japanese culture and literature, linguistics, and art. To the west of the museum stands Yanagita’s birthplace, which he once described as “the smallest house in Japan.” The house, said to have inspired his interest in folklore studies, has been relocated and preserved.