I’ll (hopefully) be traveling to Japan in January 2021 with my friend (who speaks Japanese) and we were interested in checking out this little town for their monkfish festival. However I can’t find a route there, because it appears that there isn’t a train station in that town. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
8 comments
Do you have a driver’s license? Your best bet is probably to get an International Driver’s Permit, take the train to Mutsu, and then rent a car.
By bus from Mutsu or Shimokita Station is my guess. Buses go all the way to Omasaki so I imagine they’d stop along the way. Got any info in English about the monkfish festival? That sounds fun.
You are going to need [this bus](http://www.0175.co.jp/s/s-bus/sai.pdf) from Shimoktita station. However, if you can drive, just drive.
First things first, you can approach the Shimokita peninsula from two directions: by land, through the Shimokita Railway to Mutsu, or by sea, because there’s a ferry from Hakodate to Oma which is the next town along from Kazamaura.
Once you’ve reached the peninsula, unless you’ve got a car, it’s buses from there on out. [This](http://www.0175.co.jp/s/s-bus/sai.pdf) is the latest bus timetable for the route that links Mutsu and Oma with Kazamaura. It’s in Japanese, but Kazamaura is 風間浦, Shimofuro (same municipality, further along the coast, make sure you know which one the festival is in) is 下風呂, the ferry terminal in Oma is フェリー乗場前 (and Cape Oma is 大間崎 if you want to see the northernmost point in Honshu while you’re in the area!), and the train station in Mutsu is 下北駅前.
Hope that helps!
Well Google Maps Always Helps In Japan Like Were To And How To Go To Town 😊
Although moderately stressful renting a car in Japan. When you inspect the car before you leave with it, they mark all sorts of little scratches you can barely see. Much more zealous than in the US.
I lived in Shimokita for 10 years. JR Get off at Shimokita Station. There is a car rental place right across the street behind an omiyage shop that is next to my favorite ramen place -Manpachi ramen. Try the kogashi-miso ramen (burnt miso ramen) Don’t use the busses! It will ruin your trip. You’ll regret it because of the sparsity of travel. Trust me on this one. Rent a car and drive around the penninsula stopping at Kazamaura for the festival (if the weather is not perfect it is only gonna have a very small number of people – inaka life) hit up Omazaki and definitely Hotokegaura – that is the real destination up there in Sai Village. Google it 仏ヶ浦 . You most likely will see wild macaques while driving through the mountain roads. Just slow down if you see freshly torn leaves in the road. They always travel in groups. I I would recommend making it a weekend and staying the night at Yadate Onsen in Mutsu or Minshuku Miyano in Sai and also hitting up Osore-zan. Bring your towel for onsen. The monkfish festival is like the 6th or 7th thing I would do there because Kaz is so inaka it could be dead. Shimokita is badass awesome though. Hit up Bar Neutral in Tanabu at night and say Hi to Masaki-master for me. Onsen in shimokita DO NOT prohibit tattoos. In fact it is a yakuza hang out spot for that reason. But the onsen tend to be very hot. Kazamaura has a few onsen in town that are highly sulfurous but the best one is a little further north called Yunyun. You can sit in the rotenburo and overlook the southern tip of Hokkaido. Let me know if you would like any more recommendations.
Edit: I just realized you may be planning a winter trip. Skip Oma-saki, you can still drive 338 but be BERY careful. The wind gusts on top of the mountains can pick up K cars. I drive those roads the whole time I was there though and survived. Still do the onsen! Even better in the winter. Also try Kappa no yu in the Yagen-Keiryuu during winter. It’s a beautiful free outdoor onsen. If your lucky you can enjoy the bath with fresh falling snow. You can ski on Kamfuse for cheap and Ominato drinking town is nice in the winter. Kazamaura and everything around it will be really dead except for the festival – which will be quite small. But it is worth a trip even in winter for some striking scenary. You will not see macaques in the Pacific coast side because Higashidori folk used to eat monkeys. So the monkeys have trained their children throughout the generation to stay on the west side of the mountains – Wakinosawa and Sai.
Enjoy the north. Yukiguni!
Also, if you tune into AM radio in those mountains, you can get North Korean Channels! “10,000 years Our Great Leader Shall Live” is my jam!
I had no idea there was a monkfish festival. Monkfish is my absolute favorite. I’ll have to go there too sometime, then.