#sumoto castle

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Sumoto Castle, Orodani, Sumoto, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan,

Credit: Jcastle

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Log 18

May 22 - Free Day 3 !!!

Independent Excursion: Academic Reflection

Today's plans were made very last minute. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my free day and Sammie had graciously offered for me to join on her solo excursion. She had a plan to travel to Awaji island and visit some points of interest there. I had really wanted to do a big travel outside of the places we were going as a group so this scratched that itch for me.

Sammie bought my shinkansen ticket for me (bless). Getting there was a long process and we literally got lost at a bus station for like half an hour since the directions were hella confusing. We took this bus across the second biggest suspension bridge in the world, Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge. Once we got to the island, I was a little nervous because it kinda seemed like a ghost town. It was a cute city called Sumoto. Ohama Beach was right by us as we walked to our first landmark and the streets were essentially completely empty. Everything also seemed to be closed so we held off on purchasing anything yet. A couple of shrines were littered throughout the city. I believe that this connects to the mythical origins of the island.

Our first actual stop was at the Sumoto Castle ruins that was on a mountain that overlooked the city. The hike was only 20 minutes but it was utterly brutal for me lmao. I'm surprised it made it to the top at all but I'm so glad that I did. The view was breathtaking and the wind was a nice reward for the battle I had just gone through. The ruins are quite small but it doesn't take all that much away from the experince. I really felt like Nathan Drake from Uncharted, exploring old ruins and climbing rigourous heights in order to continue my adventure. We rewarded ourselves with some cold drinks at a cafe that was at the summit. There was a nice old lady working the counter and she did her best to help us even though she spoke no english and we spoke no japanese.

Our second stop was at Nijigen No Mori which is essentially an anime and Japanese popular media themed amusement park. There were quite a few sections such as a Naruto section and a Demon Slayer section but Sammie and I went straight for the Godzilla section since Sammie loves godzilla. We did this whole godzilla experience where we ziplined into its mouth and then did a shooting simulation. Even though the park was dead, we had a hella good time and I wish we had more time to explore the other sites.

We had to run to catch the bus to the Shinkansen station after that. We made it to the station well before our time and were starving. I, however, had the bright idea to go through to our gate early which in turn left us stranded on the other side of the gate. We were literally scrounging around for food and survived off of mints and a couple kit kats until we met Sammie's frinds for dinner. I was really exhausted after this long day so I went straight home and to bed after this.

Academic Reflection

Wang, S.-C., Abe, D., Masuda, N., Shimomura, Y., & Yamamoto, S. (1995). A Brief History of Resort in Awaji Island. 47, 77–84.

The paper that we read for this excursion was covering the fact that Awaji is kind of known as a "resort" island nowadays and what that really means. The paper first compared the English versus Japanese definition of a resort before settling on "a place where has a pleasant warm climate and rich nature..." It then delved into the interesting history as to why resorts and traveling in general became a practice in the rest of the world. People believed that it was important for educated people to actually travel and visit other countries to complete their education. Usually young men would travel to cultural hubs or educational sites in places like Europe to attend scholarly programs and such. In Japan on the other hand, used resorts as places for recreation or health or such. the 1900s in general saw a high uptick in the development of such resorts in order to bring in more tourism and to become and important economic powerhouse for coastal regions such as Awaji Island. The paper dives into the fact that Awaji has a high potential for tourism due to its "romance and historical myth concerning the birth of the nation." It continued to highlight tourist and attraction sites on the island such as Sumoto castle/city as well as the whirlpools. It concluded on the fact that a strong point of the island is its natural factor and beauuty, leading the author to push for the island to capitalize on that fact and focus on an eco-developed resort.

I definitely saw the potential that the author was trying to convey in the reading. Every place that I visited seemed so beautiful and calm. I couldn't help but think that the island would be a perfect vacation destination. There was always a beautiful sight of the ocean as there was coast everywhere. There was an amusement park as well as old castle ruins, a hike, little shops to eat, places to just sit and enjoy nature. I was surprised to find the island practically deserted when we visited. The amusement park was empty with no lines whatsoever. We made the hike entirely alone, only seeing one other family when we stopped by Sumoto Castle. If I ever visit Japan again (hopefully I will) I will also want to visit Awaji again and explore even more. The island feels like an untapped gem and was one of my favorite places to visit on this trip all together.