touseniwa

touseniwa, originally uploaded by amakusavibe.

We continued northward past the industrial shores of Minamata City. Morning slumber was replaced by ravenous hunger which our Calorie Mate bars could not satisfy, so we paddled up the river estuary to the highway bridge and ordered takeout from the nearby MOS Burger; this sat heavily in our stomachs for the next couple of hours. North of Minamata we passed the well-known Yunoko Hot Spring Resort. A weird replica of a Spanish or Portuguese sailing ship came into view, incompletely metamorphosed from crude modern materials, and beyond it a small island of black volcanic rock has been bridged over and converted into a park with tropical plants. All this felt about par for the course for this kind of place. The coastline continued in a series of rocky capes containing bays of various sizes, the bigger ones lined with undistinguished-looking towns and villages. The mountain slopes facing the sea held many an orange orchard, and it was perhaps the fertilizer runoff from these that was causing abundant algal growth in the sea, which had become green and opaque. Perhaps the most interesting part of the coast was in Ashikita Town. Here there are some off-lying islets and rocks, one of which, Tousen-iwa (Chinese Boat Rock) is pictured here; it was quite unusual in that it was the only one made of limestone. The naming is curious but not uncommon: Japan having been a closed country for many centuries past, seeing a Chinese boat here (then and now) might seem just as bizarre as the sea- and rain-eroded form of this rock.