Manabe and the Inland Sea of Japan

The Inland Sea of Japan is a quiet and remote corner of our planet, rarely frequented by Western tourists. Due to this reason, it is precisely one of the ways to better know the most authentic and inner Japan as well as its the typical local fishermen, wearing their conical straw hats to protect themselves adequately from the burning sun. 


The Inland Sea @ Japan

From Kasaoka to Manabe

We take an old and obsolete boat that transports us back to past in time, to the remote fishermen village of Kasaoka -a loss stop of the JR shinkansen line coming from Hisoshima to Fukujama- in route to Manabe and its smallest neighbour islands, and we begin our navigation on the quiet and serene Inland Sea, approaching villages of no more than 300 inhabitants -many of them barely have inns or restaurants, or indeed even convenience stores, we only find a vending machine in all the way.

Manabe @ the Inland Sea, Japan

A journey to the ancient Japan

On the way we meet our two travel mates from Hiroshima, who have come to visit his friend fisherman in one of the island and kindly help us acting as our interpreter-guides inside this unique vessel that resembles us that we are for an instant out of real time, glancing at the frayed and dusty curtains that hang slightly from the boat's cealing and which seem to have standing there in the same position for many decades. Nearby the curtains, a parasol fights its way out through the tiny windows that protect us from the sun outdoors.

Ferry @ Kasaoka, Japan

And once again I experience the same feeling that I had for the first time since I landed in this amazing country, facing at the awesome Fuji: the inmensity of silence, the infinity of nothing. For the first time in the last two weeks, we are traveling throught the more authentic Japan, which is not described by the guides and in which the language of signs becomes the only means of communication with the worldabroad.

Sunset @ the Inland Sea, Japan