Japanese Island’s Ancient Castle and Haunting Earthquake Museum – Awaji Island

hey it’s Maximo and welcome to Maximo’s Travels it’s our second day on Aaji Island Japan we start off this video by going to see a fabulous garden Aaji Hana Sajigi it’s not the ideal time of year to go visit these gardens but we see spectacular vistas as well as ornamental flowering cabbages we go to an earthquake museum that commemorates the massive 1995 Kuray earthquake we’ll see a huge fault line that’s been preserved from that earthquake get an appreciation of the massive damage that was caused and experience its ferocity and destructive power with a virtual reality simulator then we’ll go to the Samoto Castle ruins and check out its stunning vistas join me as we go off the beaten path and explore Aaji Island Japan it was our first full day on Awaji Island and we’d set the satnav to take us to some magical gardens the Aaji Hana Sanjiki Gardens we set the satnav to avoid tolls so part of the route was via the coast and most of the route was via the inland minor roads as we were to find out the middle of Aaji Island is quite hilly some of the roads are quite nice and others are very steep and narrow and we went through many many small villages and heaps and heaps of onion farms after driving for about an hour and a half we arrived at the Aaji Han Sajjaki Gardens this is a worldrenowned garden famous for having blooms all year round we’ve just arrived at the Aaji Hana Sanjiki Park this is a large park filled with many different garden displays and the garden displays are seasonal at the moment we can see heaps and heaps of canola and this is as close as I’ve ever got to a canola plant and it’s got quite a nice perfume uh quite surprising anyway this is a huge park and let’s go explore it it’s quite a gray day but there are magnificent sea views from this park it was very very early in the spring and this wasn’t the best time to visit these gardens as they’d only just started blooming and all the grass and meadows looked quite brown and well pretty much dead these gardens are huge they cover the whole side of a hill and they have very wellmaintained and well- definfined walking tracks the fields not quite blooming yet not quite yet hint of purple apart from the sheer scale of this garden there’s a number of things about this garden that really amazed me one was that it was free to enter you did have to pay 200 yen or about $2 Australian dollars to park in the car park but otherwise visiting here is totally free i was also amazed at the sheer number of people that were working in these gardens preparing all the flowers for its prime blooming season in summer and if you’re wondering these are what the gardens look like in the peak of summer absolutely spectacular and apart from the rate seed we had to get up close and personal to the flower beds to see any hint of the flowers blooming i have no idea what they’re saying but that’s the observation deck up there got a couple of shops and cafes as well we climbed up a set of stairs to get to the viewing platform you can also get the lift that’s located in the building where the cafes are and the viewing deck provides an expansive view of the gardens and the panorama of Osaka Bay the walkway is pretty large and some sections of it are covered which would be handy if it was raining or if the sun was beating down on you and I’ve got to say the views from up on this deck were pretty impressive these gardens are around about 250 m above sea level and the views from the roof of the building was as impressive as the deck as were the planter boxes that was filled with ornamental flowering cabbages within the building is a very inviting restaurant and cafe with floor to ceiling windows and equally fantastic views you can get a coffee or a meal here and if the weather was nice sit out on the open deck that is the car park entrance there’s a car park across the road and then there’s one down the hill that’s where we parked there’s a cafe on the second floor and a gift shop public conveniences outside as well and it cost 200 yen to park but the gardens are free to enter so that’s pretty good value I think pretty good value there was quite an extensive gift shop on the ground floor and it sold any number of things but heaps and heaps of products made from onions being a waji it is a center for onion production there were quite a number of interesting products for sale including this milk waffle cookie or this onion cheese waffle cookie interesting joe couldn’t resist and bought these cat cookies she loves cats although we did pass on the bags of raw onions and as we left the gardens with a couple of bags of onion chips in tow I couldn’t get over how stunning the ornamental flowering cabbages were we hopped back in the car and started driving for 10 or so minutes and about 5 1/2 kilometers to our next destination through quite narrow and twisty roads our destination was the Awaji Earthquake Museum and the suggested path via Google Maps was a lot easier than it was in actuality we are free after a little bit of treacherous driving we arrived at our destination the earthquake museum this is formerly known as the Hudaken Earthquake Memorial Park in Noima Fault Preservation Museum the museum is quite a large complex and it comprises a number of different areas including the Neoima Fault Preservation Pavilion the memorial house and the earthquake experience hall the cost to enter the museum is around 700 yen or about 7 Australian dollars per person this museum is dedicated to the great Hansenshin earthquake which struck this area at 5:46 on the morning of January the 17th 1995 this earthquake is also known as the Kobe earthquake which is not surprising because of the number of buildings destroyed and major loss of life in the Coobe area however the epicenter of the earthquake was in Awaji Island 17 kilometers beneath the surface an area near the museums dedicated to pictures and interesting facts about the earthquake which unfortunately took more than 6,000 lives and fully or partially destroyed more than 240,000 homes in this area it was a massive magnitude 7.3 earthquake it’s not surprising that this major earthquake struck Awaji Island as it lies on the intersection of quite a few major earthquake fault lines we’re at the Nojima fault preservation pavilion and I’m standing in front of a uh diarama of the island so that’s the island of Aaji and there’s two major faults that that basically intersect at the bottom of the island and this is where a major earthquake struck in 1995 and we’re here at the pavilion exploring the earthquakes effects and aftermath these are sen bazuru a thousandfolded Japanese cranes signifying good wishes and healing and recovery in the Japanese culture i just can’t imagine how huge the earthquake would have felt to the inhabitants and this is a preserved part of the fault line that was created in that 1995 earthquake so this is a huge pavilion and 140 m of the fault line has been preserved it’s undercover in a huge pavilion nothing illustrates the power and the destructive forces of the earthquake more than this Hshaped hedgrove with one of its arms moved many many meters away from its neighboring trees fascinating as is by the horizontal and vertical movement of this fault line it’s been perfectly preserved for the last 30 years the impact of the earthquake is really well illustrated here if you align the orange dots and blue dots you can see how much the land has moved both vertically and horizontally it really is a huge complex i wasn’t expecting something so large and elaborate and that’s the fault line there you can see that there’s two very distinct parts of the rock and soil and they basically slipped and moved that’s quite fascinating you can also see evidence of liquefaction where the whole consistency of the soil has changed under the pressures caused by the earthquake and this is one of the preserved walls of one of the buildings that mostly fell down there’s just this one wall left with lots of rubble around it just beyond the Neo Jima Fault Preservation Pavilion is the memorial house it’s an original house that’s been pretty much left untouched since the day the earthquake in 1995 the fault line almost ran through the house and it’s a testament to the Japanese building techniques and building standards that the house was still standing the fault line runs through the yard of the house and you can see how it’s damaged one of its stone walls this damaged and buckw wall fence used to be straight as a die and I’m amazed at how it could still be standing the fault line appears where that red marker is and it has been concreted over to make it safe for visitors but you can see how close the fault line actually came to the house i don’t know how it’s still standing truly that’s a reverse fault this is a normal fault and lastly we have a slip fault that’s amazing i’m not sure you can see the bend in that wall but that used to be a straight wall and now it’s awfully awfully crooked it’s like 1 and 1/2 m off kilter goodness our last stop was the earthquake experience hall and one of the core things about this room was that there was a virtual reality setup connected to vibrating and moving chairs all the instructions were in Japanese which was a bit disconcerting and you were able to experience an earthquake through the VR headset and the moving chair it was quite a realistic experience what’s your name the strongest earthquake I’ve experienced was in Melbourne in 2021 when a 5.9 magnitude quake hit and I do hope I never get to experience a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in my lifetime a tour of the museum concluded with a short video it was all in Japanese but thankfully there were English subtitles so we could follow the story along and learn about the impact of that massive earthquake in 1995 we left the earthquake museum and proceeded to our next destination the Samoto castle ruins we decided to avoid tolls and take the overland route to the coast and travel all the way down the coast to the town of Samoto it was an hour’s drive and just under 35 kilometers in length samoto is the third largest city on Awaji Island and I was actually surprised at how built up it was the city has about 42,000 people we drove up quite a steep hill and arrived at our destination the car park was rather small and we were lucky enough to score the very last car park in it the castle ruins are quite extensive but entry is free the castle sits 133 m above sea level on the top of Mount Mikuma originally built in the 15th century the castle gradually fell into disrepair over the centuries through inactivity and little use the monumental stone walls still remain to this day it is quite a steep walk from the car park to the upper levels of the castle ruins the distance is around about half a kilometer the path is wellmaintained and in reasonable condition it does require a moderate degree of fitness to get up there and once you’re up there there are public bathrooms available for you as well oh looks like a lot of steps oh big steps oh goodness yes it does take a fair bit of effort getting up those stairs because they are quite high these are huge steps it is a bit of an effort to get to the higher part of the castle and once you turn the corner you get your first glimpse of the tensu or main keep oh wow that’s stunning huh it’s absolutely stunning there’s a small cafe up here as well it’s open from 9:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m every day except Tuesdays and Wednesdays we decided to go in and have a coffee as well as a small snack or two and given its location it did have a small but wholesome menu the cafe was empty when we came but it was nice and warm and modern and quite inviting and Joe and I took a seat as we waited for our coffees and snacks to arrive a lot of the different literature and some snacks and locally produced items were available sadly for me no fridge magnets suitably caffeinated we made it to the top part of the castle ruins up even more stairs the stairs led up to a very large flat plateau that offered stunning views of Osaka Bay in the port city of Sumoto what an utterly amazing view from up here goodness wow it was quite cold and blustery up here but the views were certainly worth it this is the highest part of the castle the keep it was rebuilt in 1928 to celebrate the thrroning of Emperor Hirohito and climbing up the few stairs here provides a fantastic 360 degree view of the whole of Samoto and it’s hinter land there’s all these Sakura trees here and I think we’re probably about 3 or 4 weeks too early because I can see the buds but no Sakura flowers unfortunately all those trees are Sakura trees and it would look absolutely and utterly amazing coming here in middle of April i think there were a couple of flowering plants here but they weren’t sakuras don’t worry we were to see so many different sakuras in so many different locations on our trip in Japan that we would experience we really did like to explore the ruins of the Samoto Castle it’s hard to get to especially without a car but if you’re on a island well worth the visit we kept exploring and then Eureka there it was amazing and this is our first Sakura sighting it’s not it’s not Sakura it’s probably plum umi umi plum well it’s certainly a very nice blossoms white and pink no not quite it’s only just starting I think only just starting the um roof secure i know I got a bit overly excited they weren’t cherry blossoms they were plum blossoms but they were certainly a sign of things that would be coming we hop back into a car and continue down the hill and the 25 odd kilometers to our hotel the Grand Mure in Aaji on the island south again we avoided tall roads and again we went through some of the narrowest and most precarious roads on the island we spent another fantastic day touring Awaji Island i do hope you’ve liked this video if so please consider hitting that like and subscribe button hit 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It’s our second day on the remote and fabulous Awaki Island in Japan.

We start off by visiting the Awaji Hanasajiki Gardens. It wasn’t quite the right season to visit but we did see a few flowers, mass plantings of Rapeseed and ornamental flowering cabbages to name a few.

Next up is an Earthquake museum, The Hokudanshinsai Memorial Park and Nojima Fault Preservation Museum, commemorating the massive 1995 Kobe Earthquake. The original fault line is preserved as is some of the damaged buildings in the area. I even get to experience the earthquake via a 3D virtual simulator. Tickets cost ¥ 730.

The last stop is the Sumoto Castle Ruins, where we check out its old walls and stunning vistas.

Another great day touring around Awaji Island.

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Links:
– https://www.instagram.com/visitjapanau/
– https://www.instagram.com/awajihanasajiki/
– https://www.instagram.com/awaji.earth.museum?igsh=MThubHk0dWlxcHhlZA%3D%3D
– https://www.nojima-danso.co.jp/nojima/
– https://www.awajishima-kanko.jp/manual/detail.html?bid=242

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:07 Awaji Hanasajiki Gardens
07:28 Nojima Fault Preservation Museum
15:58 Sumoto Castle Ruins
22:53 Summary & Outro

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