Japanese autumn is a perfect season for walking tours. After exhausting, hot summer, I have found a big pleasure in walking during warm Japanese autumn. Acoording to the guidebook, there are many walking tours along the Tokaido road, that leads through the coast. This time I decided to go on ‘Manazuru Walking Course’. During the tour, you can walk around all Manazuru town, taht is located on a small Manazuru peninsula on Sagami Bay in the far southwestern corner of Kanagawa Prefecture.

The first spot of my tour was located just next to the Manazuru Station. It was ‘Araijoshi Park’, that is very calm and relaxing place. For me it was totally new experiance to be in such a place, because I haven’t ever seen as many bamboos in the same area. Due to the climate, there are no bamboos in Poland and I’m not used to that image of usual park in the middle of a town. For me, it was such an exotic landscape! Then, I was walking by the twisted road about 40 minutes, but it wasn’t boring at all, because there were many places, from where I could watch the view of the fish harbour and the coast. When I finally reached to the place called ‘Ohayashitenbo Park’ I found out that it’s actually golf course there. There were many elder people there, who were very adsorbed in playing and enjoyed it so much! Such a shame, that elder people in Poland aren’t even in a half as active as Japanese elders. No matter if you like golf or not, you should come there, because except of the golf course, there is really great vantage spot there. Just near this park, there is ‘Nakagawa Kazumasa Museum of Art’, where you should come if you like painting. In general, collection of the museum includes paintings of Nakagawa Kazumasa, who built a studio in Manazuru in 1949 and had spent the next 20 years painting in his later years. A lot of paintings are about surroundings of Manazuru and Mt. Fuji area. It was very interesting for me then, to watch paintings of already known places, that I have been travelling for last months.

After watching all collection, I took the road to the main spot of the course. Characteristic of Manazuru is, that all town is located on the peninsula, that is full of coast’s view spots. The most impressive spot is called ‘The Mitsuishi Shore’. In that place wave after wave surges upon the stony shore, that looks really awesome. Along the shore there is special pedestrian built for walkers, then you don’t have to be afraid of stumbling over the stones. When I reached to the furthest place on my course, I slowly started to come back to the station. However, it wasn’t over of tourist attractions. My favourite spot on the way back was ‘Kifune shrine’ that I would never noticed, if I hadn’t found in a guidebook. Because of high, monumental stairs, that lead to the shrine, you predict magnificent, big shrine, but in fact, it’s built in usual size. But, what surprised me a lot is, that against to the shrines I have seen before, it wasn’t colored with red but pure white. The last place, that I visit on my course, was fishing port. In the port area, there are many shops with fresh and various types of fishes. If you are looking for some local products of the highest quality, you should definietly come there.

Summary

‘Manazuru Walking Course’ is quite long and it takes some time to walk it all around. However, if you want to see the most impressive spots of Manazuru peninsula in one day, this is the course exactly for you. All the places are located along the route and you can easily find them, if you use a map. When you feel tired, you can cover some distance by bus, because there are bus stops near most of the sightseeing spots on the course.

Weronika Golubska

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* This article was written by a trainee from overseas. Please note that there might be spelling and grammar mistakes.