Lingshan Secret Sea creates "the most beautiful bay in the world"

The entire mountain is "made up" by snow, full of holyness, and at the same time, it rises almost flat between the city and the bay, so it adds a sense of proximity. From this, we can probably get a little insight into why the locals think that it is a sacred mountain and a spirit mountain. Staff at the Toyama prefectural government say that in Japan, where earthquakes are frequent, there are almost no earthquakes in Toyama Prefecture, and they believe that it is because of Tateyama's protection.

Yang Ting

"Standing on the mountain with snow, I can't get tired of looking at it for a year, but the sacred mountain has to be like this." In the Manba Collection, Japan's oldest poetry collection, the famous singers blessed the snowy view of Tateyama from Toyama Bay.

1300 years later, Toyama Bay, together with Saint-Michel Bay in France and Halong Bay in Vietnam, was voted "The World's Most Beautiful Bay" by the "World's Most Beautiful Bay Club" headquartered in France.

Spirit Mountain and Secret Sea

From Tokyo, it takes about two hours by Hokuriku Shinkansen to Toyama City, the capital of Toyama Prefecture, and then transfer tomiyama's local railway "Dongfeng and Yamano Railway" for about 20 minutes to reach Uzu Station. The name of this local railway in Toyama, "Dongfeng and Mountain", actually refers to "Fengyu and Fengzuo", and there are also allusions to the "Manyoshu", which basically means that the east wind from the sea blowing from Lingshan Tateyama brings Fengyu and Fengzuo.

Uozu is one of the gateways to Toyama Bay, located in the southeast of Toyama Bay, across the bay from the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, and the coastal situation of the Noto Peninsula is often refracted to the shore of Uzu through mirages, so it is also known as the "Mirage City". If the weather is clear, stepping out of Uozu Station, the first thing that will amaze you is not the sea, but the mountain - the screen-like peaks of Tateyama will swoop into your eyes and seem to be close at hand. You can also see Tateyama peaks in other parts of Toyama Prefecture, but it seems that you can only get to the front with a run, probably only in Uzu.

The Hida Mountains, including Tateyama,000 peaks, are also known as the "Northern Alps", the Japanese Alps. In the era of the "Manyo Collection", the peaks of Tateyama were covered with snow all year round, so there would be the famous sentence of the aforementioned blessing of the great companion. Today, Tateyama is only half a year of snow. Compared to Mt. Fuji, which is famous for its "snow summit", Tateyama's peaks are full of snow "makeup" and a sense of holiness, and at the same time, it rises almost flat between the city and the bay, so it adds a sense of proximity. From this, we can probably get a little insight into why the locals think that it is a sacred mountain and a spirit mountain. Toyama prefectural government workers said that in Japan, where earthquakes are frequent, there are almost no earthquakes in Toyama Prefecture, and they believe that it is because of Tateyama's protection.

Connected to the Spirit Mountain is the Secret Sea. It takes about 20 minutes by car from Uzu Station to reach Toyama Bay. Here, you will see the Tateyama peaks meet the sea level, from the peaks at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters to the water depth of Toyama Bay, the height difference of up to 4,000 meters, such a terrain makes the sea blue of Toyama Bay particularly deep. Beneath the deep blue ocean, there is the wonder of the "buried forest" that is nourished by the snow water of Tateyama and the deep fresh water of the ocean gushing out from the bottom of the bay, and is not corroded by the seawater.

The snow-capped mountains connect the sea level, the mirage, and the Buried Forest Museum, which is the three wonders of Toyama Bay and the reason why it has been named the "Most Beautiful Bay in the World". And if you want to "know its beauty more than its beauty", then you may wish to walk into the Buried Forest Museum located on the bay side, which not only explains in detail the causes of the topography and geology of Tateyama and Toyama Bay, but also exhibits the past and present lives of the buried forests, but also has high-definition images and simulation devices to explain to visitors the causes and types of mirage wonders - how light refraction, wind speed, air temperature, etc. affect the imaging of mirages, and how positive imaging in spring and inverted imaging in winter occur.

Intangible Cultural Heritage "Lantern Festival"

In Yuzu, there are mirages to see in spring and winter, and in summer, there is the "Lantern Festival", a folk event that has been selected as an intangible cultural heritage of the United Nations, attracting tourists from all over the world.

The Lantern Festival has a history of more than 300 years, and on the first Friday and Saturday of August every year, a two-day blessing parade is held from the 1,300-year-old Suwa Shrine in Uozu City, and a fireworks display is held at the same time.

The protagonists of the parade are seven "ship-shaped lanterns" carried by more than 80 young adults. More than 90 lanterns are hung on the pillars and sail-shaped triangular wooden frames of about 16 meters high, and then hung with painted forehead paintings (i.e., fringed paintings) about 10 meters wide, with a total weight of about 5 tons, resembling offerings before the gods, and like the sails raised by fishing boats that set sail, and the young and middle-aged people carry them on a parade while shouting and drinking, praying for a year of peace for fishing boats that sail out to sea. Hundreds of swaying lanterns come from the local towns and represent the wishes of the locals, like bright sails leaping between the night sky and the deep sea. Locals dress up in summer's simple kimono "yukata" and follow the parade with a tuan fan. Seeing it with your own eyes, you will be moved by the gorgeous lights, paintings, simple folk customs, and people living between mountains and seas in love and awe of nature.

In addition to the local young adults, there are also volunteers recruited from primary and secondary school students, and the local government will give all participants t-shirts and amulets for the "Lantern Festival". The purpose is obviously not to rely on the strength of the children, but to cultivate their awareness of the protection and inheritance of folk activities from an early age.

In conjunction with the "Standing Lantern Festival", fireworks will also be set off. The fireworks venue is located on the beach, a 10-minute walk from Suwa Shrine, where you can enjoy the lanterns and watch the fireworks. There is also a food stall called the "Night Terrace" next to the venue, where fresh seafood barbecues, shaved ice, the most popular summer snacks, and traditional snacks such as marshmallows are also pleasing to the eye.

Qiuzi Shenyu and Yamayuki Kaiyuki

There is also a famous place with a long history on the shores of Toyama Bay, which is the hot spring town famous for its "Zibao Yuji" on Mt. Uzu Kita. "Zibao" means to ask for a son, and "Yuji" is a hot spring recuperation, that is, to seek a child through the cultivation of the body through hot springs.

It takes about 15 minutes by car from Uozu Harbor to Kitayama. Although it is not as famous as Tateyama, the natural environment such as dense forests and fields and clear spring streams is also amazing.

Located on the mountainside, the Ninozoemon Inn, founded in 1867, is the ancestor of the Kitayama "Koho Yuji". It is said that the entrepreneur Qinghe Renyouweimen had a dream, in the dream the white-clothed immortals told him that as long as he moved to Beishan and let his wife often use the colorless and odorless mineral springs of Beishan to bathe, he could conceive a child, so Renyouweimen did so, and soon his wife really "had joy", in order to benefit more people, Renyouweimen opened a "Yuzhi" hotel in Beishan, and some couples with this distress came to live for a while every twenty days or a month, and the hotel provided a kitchen for them to cook their own meals.

Walking into this spacious courtyard, carefully renovated Japanese-style inn, a refreshing smell of traditional Japanese incense wafts through the face, and a large toad antique squat in the entrance – toad is a symbol of many children and grandchildren in Japanese culture. Cabinets, scroll scrolls, and gorgeous kimonos and clothes passed down from generation to generation can be seen everywhere, quietly displaying the history and story of this place.

The hotel is also decorated with cartoon portraits of "Ren Right Gate" and the words "Zibao Prayer" drawn by young female generals who are good at illustration and calligraphy (the hostess of Japanese-style hotels or restaurants). Tetsushi Kiyoshi, the owner of the hotel in their 40s, has 4 children, and they laughed that they have also been confirming that Kitayama Onsen has the "divine power" of making people have many children and grandchildren.

NinyouEmon Hotel has 3 public hot spring pools, including an indoor large communal bath for multiple people to use at the same time, as well as an open-air hot spring "Kusanagi No Yu" and "Hotaru No Yu". In addition, there are "room soups" in several large rooms of the hotel, allowing guests to enjoy private time more freely. All the ponds have excellent views of the nature and idyllic scenery of the North Mountain. It is said that fireflies can also be seen in the summer, which is also the origin of the name "Firefly Soup".

Kiyokawa told me that there are almost no people who can come to recuperate frequently, so there are only two "Yuji" hot spring inns in Kitayama. However, there are still many guests who admire the fame of "Zibao Soup". To this end, the hotel has set up a special reward, that is, couples who have the desire to become pregnant, if they really have "joy" in the following year and come to stay again, the hotel will waive the cost of one person's food and accommodation.

In the legend of "Zibao Yuji" in Kitayama, in addition to bathing in soup to warm up, dietary therapy is also an important part. Nowadays, Renyouweimen Hotel generally does not accept reservations for accommodation only, but implements "one park, two meals" to integrate food and accommodation. Qinghe laughed and said that of course, this is not to provide all guests with a child-seeking diet, but Kitayama, which is only 15 kilometers away from Toyama Bay, is rich in "Yamayuki Haiyuki" (Mountain Treasure SeaFood), which has a very big advantage in "food".

When crystal clear white shrimp, fireflies, oysters with round bellies, and moist sea urchins are placed in the middle of a dish and a beautiful container with the same shape and color, and placed on a table towel with gorgeous and patterned patterns, the first is to understand more deeply why Japanese food has the reputation of "cooking with eyes", and the second is that it is really salivating.

If you look at the menu next to you, you will find that although it looks like a full-table Japanese food, it actually introduces Western food elements, such as the use of cheese in dim sum, the introduction of baking in the practice, etc., which is also an innovative measure that most Japanese hotels are doing today.

However, it is definitely "foreign for fur, and for the body": the pre-food wine is plum wine, the appetizer is the sesame sauce poured with figs, the "jin dish" is a variety of sparkling sashimi and live oysters placed on thin pieces, the "cooking" is the hydrangea steamed bun with a transparent konjac layer and steamed oysters, followed by the "cold bowl" (local cold noodles), the "Taiwan" (roasted wagyu and fresh mushrooms), the "oil" (white shrimp tempura), the "vinegar" (vinegar pickled octopus), the "fragrant" (Japanese kimchi)... A round of eating, it definitely makes people feel that it is worth staying here just for this meal.

"These are all blessings of Toyama Bay and Tateyama and Kitayama." Qinghe said, "It's Yamayuki and Kaiyuki." ”