Amanohashidate: The Bridge to Heaven

“Kavitha, WHAT are you doing? Are you sick, cuz girl you look crazy!?!” I shouted to my friend as we were on top of a mountain on the Sea of Japan. After stepping on a bench to see the view of the sea from the summit, my friend had immediately bent over as though she were going to be sick…until I realized that everyone else was doing the same thing. I knew Japanese people were a little crazy what with their dressing up as anime characters and drunk salarymen on the trains…but honestly, folks.

What I didn’t realize was that for millenia, visitors at the Bridge to Heaven have been doing this very same thing. Supposedly, it gives one the ultimate view of the tree-covered sandbar as it sweeps up toward the heavens. Amanohashidate (say that ten times fast), as it is known in Japanese, is one of the Nihon Sankei, or three most beautiful sights in Japan that have been worshipped for centuries. My buddy and I had used our Spring Break to join in on the affordable train fairs that are offered for young travelers, such as the “youthful 18” ticket that allowed us to travel for 5 very long hours to the northern end of Kansai, on the Sea of Japan.

What we didn’t realize, was that even after soaking in the amazing sights, walking for miles on the tranquil sandbar, visiting omiyage (local traditional souvenir/gift) shops and seeing temples was that the island literally shut down at 5:30. On the dot. We couldn’t even find a convenience store, which are as prominent in Japan as Starbucks in the states (it’s true, if Starbucks made “across the street from one another” stores popular, Japan perfected it)!

So hungry and tired, Kavitha did the only thing possible: stowed away on an express train, pretended to be asleep and made it back to Osaka in a quarter of the time it took us to get to the Bridge to Heaven. Seriously…why hadn’t I thought of it before? We’ve both paid an arm and a leg (and probably a spleen and kidney) in transportation costs in this country and the trains have an explicit “no waking foreigners up because they might curse at you in words you don’t understand” policy, so fortunately it worked to our advantage. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) for Kavitha and I, we have consciouses that work overtime, so we’re going to put our illegitimate train-hopping ways on the back-burner…

…at least until there’s another adventure to tackle!