EN: Amanohashidate is one of the famous Three Views of Japan, it’s located in the northern part of Kyoto prefecture and it offers nice views of the well-known sandbar together with its surroundings, if the weather is nice. The sandbar itself is just a long slice of sandy land covered with pine trees, but it’s still quite popular for its relaxing environment. There is a temple Chion-Ji, which is one of the places of interests, but the sandbar itself is no doubt the most famous. It’s 3,3 km long, you can walk from the beginning to the end or you can rent a bike and return it in the end station. I prefer walking with my camera, therefore I decided to – well, walk. There are quite a few markings on some of the places, which most probably point out something interesting, but all of them were in Japanese, except one stone remembering the visit of Japanese royalty.
There are two lifts on both ends of the sandbar, both of them with great views and observatories, so they are worth of visiting. I visited this place with my JR Pass – anyone who is reserving the tickets directly to Amanohashidate, please be aware, that some of the JR employees do not realize that the part of the track from Amanohashidate to Fukuchiyama is not operated by JR and therefore the pass is not valid. The local train company is called KitaKinki Tango Miyafuku Line and since my ticket was not valid on the first place, I had to pay 2000 yen for the arrival and another 2000 yen for the return ticket. The staff on the station didn’t speak English at all and that was a trouble, as I didn’t get what was going on, thinking that since I managed to reserve the whole route in JR office, everything would be covered by JR Pass. I understood that I had to pay 2000 yen for one-way ticket when I arrived, but since they asked me for another 2000 yen, that was a surprise. Only later on I figured out that I was already buying the return ticket. The staff from the local tourist information center helped me a lot, and I am very sorry that I caused the trouble for the employees of the station because of the language barrier and because of the slight JR mistake. Therefore – be aware of this problem as I was told that I was not the only one, who was misguided. I never had any trouble similar to this in Japan, so it’s only one little mistake, which can sometimes happen.
SK: Amanohashidate je druhým z troch Views of Japan, nachádza sa na severe prefektúry Kyoto a v prípade dobrého počasia ponúka celkom úchvatný výhľad a scenériu. V danej lokalite toho okrem samotnej piesočnej línie s japonskými borovicami dohromady nič nie je, no aj tak to miesto stojí za návštevu. Chrámov som už videl viac ako dosť a to som ešte nebol v Kyoto a Nara, takže tamojší Chion-Ji ma už nejako nenadchol.
Piesočný pás má dĺžku 3,3 kilometra, dá sa po ňom prechádzať po vlastných alebo na bicykloch, keďže s fotoaparátom preferujem chôdzu, aspoň som si spravil prechádzku. Počas nej som natrafil na viacero zaujímavých miest, ktoré boli žiaľ popísané iba v japončine a jediným náznakom angličtiny bol kameň, ktorý je pamätníkom návštevy cisára.
Na záver pikoška – na železničnej stanici som zo seba nechtiac spravil vola, nebolo to ale mojou chybou. Tetuška na stanici v Osake mi totiž na môj JR Pass predala lístok priamo do Amanoshidate, pričom obrovským problémom je fakt, že medzi na trase z Kyoto do Amanoshidate od stanice Fukuchiyama operuje iný prevádzkovateľ s názvom KitaKinki Tango Miyafuku Line a to pre mňa samozrejme znamenalo, že tieto kilometre môj JR Pass nepokrýval a musel som si kúpiť samostatné lstky. To sa mi tam snažili vysvetliť, moja japončina je obmedzená a ich angličtina nebola žiadna (ani slovo), keď sme sa nakoniec dopracovali k tomu, že musím platiť, tak som zaplatil. Ibaže pracovníci odo mňa žiadali opäť tú istú sumu a ja som netušil, že už ráno po mne chcú, aby som si doplatil za spiatočný lístok (veď aj tak by mi to sprievodca vo vlaku zrátal), takže z toho bola veľmi nepodarená konverzácia, ktorá trvala asi desať minút. Napokon ale všetko dobre skončilo a prišiel som o skoro 4000 yenov. Slečna na informáciách potvrdila, že nie som jediný, kto mal tento problém, takže aspoň som nebol sám.
