Monday, December 24, 2007

Nishihara Marine Park and points south











Location - east coast of island, Nishihara; off the 329 towards the 331, take virtually any left turn south of the harbour and you'll run into the beach, boardwalk, or central building
This is a huge beach/BBQ hut/boardwalk/harbour area, overwrought in concrete in the typical Japanese fashion. There are several concrete breakwalls in front of the sandy area, and concrete walkways lining rows and rows and concrete and tile BBQ huts. Plenty of public toilets, and lots of plants that aren't doing very well. It is amazing how many concreted and overconstructed beaches there are along the east coast of the island. We have visited many of them but neglected to take photos. But we can't recall a single beach on the east coast of the island we would visit on purpose.
Driving south through Yonabaru towards Azama SanSan, there is not much to distract the traveller. The Oka castle ruins were an entertaining side trip. Not much left of the castle, but the area is wonderfully overgrown with ferns and you can lookout over Haebaru. No one seems to come here.
The coast here is either residential or industrial all the way to Azama, where one can get the ferry to Kudaka from the port just east of the beach. It appears that the hotel on the hill west of the beach also has a mini-port with ferries and glass-bottom boats.