5:00 am, I went to the public open-air bath. The men’s and women’s sides change every day, and today the men’s slide faced the rising sun. From the main pool it wasn’t possible to see the sunrise while sitting in the water up to your neck, although if I sat on the first step, I could barely see it. But the outdoor bath was better. It wasn’t as hot, but there was a rock you could sit on and watch the sunrise while listening to the water splashing from the mouth of a carved salmon on the wall. The rain clouds in the distance made the sunrise even better, with clouds traced by orange and beams of light radiating down. I thought about the symbolism of the sunrise. It means a new day, and a new start to every day. When I see a sunrise, I will think about how I can make this day a better day.
A fantastic breakfast brunch was served. There was lots of seafood, omelets, and even sashimi. Also traditional Japanese breakfast items like green salad and miso soup
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| Breakfast at the Jodagahama Park Hotel |
It was raining, but then it stopped, so we went down to the Umineko tour boat where we bought round trip tickets. We got seats on the top deck in front, right next to the guide. As you sail away from the dock, the cashier and dock crew wave and wave to you until the boat disappears around the breakwater. Very Japanese. Then one of the deck hands brings out a basket of cellophane wrapped buns that look like they’re made with flakes of seaweed. This is umineko bread. It costs 200 yen each. Soon swarms of umineko appear, keeping pace with the boat. Some land on it. We tossed out hunks of the bread and the umineko would grab it out of the air. The trip from Jodogahama goes around to the north to candlestick rock. Then it goes back down south. The trip was fully narrated and the guide even sang a song to which everyone clapped along.
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| Umineko Maru |
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| Our guide on the Umineko Maru. The red floater on the hillside marks the height of the 3.11 tsunami. |
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| Jodogahama Park Hotel |
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| A flock of umineko. They're just waiting for folks to toss them pieces of bread. |
On arrival , we walked to the Seatopia 道の駅みやこ (Miyako Road Station) building where there was a ticket desk for the Umineko Maru, an unattended information desk, and a large area with tables and chairs where we were able to plan out our next steps. There was a farmers’ market-like area and a restaurant upstairs. The market was interesting because it had information about each farmer and their picture, too. Their produce really looked good. There was a small area with crafts and baked goods. I had to get a melon pan for 150 yen. It was smaller and heartier than the konbini type. I bet they weighed the same, though.
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| Enjoying mugicha (roasted barley tea). |
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| Produce from local farmers. Myoga is in the lower left bin. |
On to checking out the Miyako City Fish Market (https://www.jfmiyako.net/). We came to a door where a woman was talking to a couple and directing them to the other end of the building - across from Seatopia. I wasn’t sure what this was about but we would find out later. Instead I asked her if this was a tourist place and if we could enter. She said yes, and asked us to put on a baseball cap that said “visitor”. Then we were asked to put on rubber boots. We went out the door onto the auction floor, first passing through a shallow bath of what we think was disinfectant. We realized that we probably should have also used the hand disinfectants that were by the boots, but because the auction floor was pretty much empty I don’t think they enforced it too strictly. And the reason it was so empty was that it was 11:00 am. I can’t confirm it, but AI told me that there is a morning market and an afternoon market when the trawlers come in. Also, there is another market which we didn’t get to - the Gyosai Market which is quite a ways inland. Anyway there was no fish on the floor. Just a mostly empty cavernous warehouse.
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| Miyako City Fish Market |
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| Engi-kumade (縁起熊手) or lucky decorative rake on the auction floor. |
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| Ice-making machinery and crates for transporting seafood. |
We soon left and climbed the 10.4 meter high tsunami wall that was next to the market. From there we were able to climb a hill which overlooked the city and the ongoing tsunami wall upgrade construction. Not really much else to do, so we went back to Seatopia. Across from Seatopia we saw an entrance to the fish market with several nobori (vertical flags). That may have been that place where the woman at the market was directing that couple to. I later found out that it was the City Market Cafeteria. Next time, we’ll try that. But we had been short of time so we went to the cafe on the second floor of Seatopia. We got shokuten from a machine for trout-sashimi-don. It was kind of like salmon, except the slabs of fish were really thick. It kind of took a long time to get our orders which was surprising considering that our meal didn’t need to be cooked!
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| The Miyako fishing fleet from the top of the tsunami wall. |
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| Massive tsunami gates under construction. |
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| Miyako Port |
Back on the Umineko Maru, we made a more direct trip back to Jodogahama, but they still sold umineko pan. One thing we noticed this time, maybe because we were paying as much attention to the birds, is that they poop on the deck a lot! The crew was busy inconspicuously mopping it away. Also, a pro tip: break off bigger pieces of bread so you can throw it farther so you won’t get poop splattered on you. It’s fun to pick a specific bird and to toss the bread in such a way that no other bird can steal it.
We walked up to the Jodogahama Visitor Center which was nice, but they didn’t have a lot of interpretive information in English. So we hiked further up Usuki Mountain to the Fisheries Science Museum. This place had hardly any visitors. It probably gets a lot of school tours, though. The good part is that they give you an ipod-like device with which you can tap on the displays and get an overview in English. Also the device gives you quizzes generated by chatGPT. Overall, a pretty good museum.
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| Entrance to the Fisheries Science Museum. |
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| Displays of fishes. |
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| And displays of fishing gear. |
On our way back to the Hotel, we ran into a couple of ladies who wanted to know how to get to the beach. We showed them the trail we had used, but they were too afraid of bears.
We had another great buffet dinner. This time they gave us abalone, on-the-house. We thought that it was maybe because we didn’t order any beer this time.
