Nishiwaki, The Bellybutton of Japan | Hidden Hyogo Gem

Nishiwaki, The Bellybutton of Japan | Hidden Hyogo Gem

Welcome to the belly button of Japan. Good morning, guys. Today we’re in Nishiwaki, which is only about an hour’s drive from home. If you consider Hkaido was the head, Okano is the feet. Well, Nishiwaki is the belly button of Japan. So, we’re here today. We are going to check out a historic house, learn about Nishiwaki’s unique textile industry, and check out some archaeological digs not far from here. All right, let’s get to it. But first, let’s have a quick look around Nihon Hessel Coin, Japan’s Belly Button Park. I don’t know whether you can pick that up on the camera. Oh, it’s so weird when I’m standing here in the middle of this structure, this map, it sounds like I’m on on speaker phone. Don’t know, but the picks it up. It’s so weird. Sounds like one of those boom whackers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. just on the outskirts of Nishiwaki and we’re on the banks of the Kakagawa River in a place called Toriun Nada. Now there’s this massive rock formation in the middle of the river here. So let’s go check it out. Hundreds of years ago, they used to bring all the cargo down the river and they were faced with these rocks. So, what they had to do was unpack all the boats, drag the boats over the rock and then continue. In 1872, there was a French engineer from the Ikeno silver mine. If you saw our ekeno uh episode, we went to the silver mine, checked it out. Uh yeah, so the French engineer came here and helped them dig a channel or excavate it, blew it up, I guess, whatever they did back in the old days. Uh yeah, through here so the boats didn’t have to unpack. They could go straight through safely. Yeah. So let’s go have a look. That’s mad. Yeah. So, this is the channel that they cut all those years ago. That would have been a massive job since 180 m long through this rock. Crazy. So now the boats could come down straight down this channel and continue on their way. Yeah. It’s a bit of fun walking across the rocks. It reminds me of when you’re a kid down at the beach and looking through all the rock pools. Uh, no crabs today, but you got to watch your step. It’s quite uneven. Toriada, a popular spot for having rugged rocks all over the river. Is also familiarized as a spot for tobayu, expression of act that viewing sweet fish jump out from the river. This early spot to begin catching sweet fishes on May 1st in every year’s e. Okay. 1st of May. They’re all down here catching sweet fish. That’ll be have to come down and watch that. I might have to come back in May. It’ll still be cold. Okay, we’re here at Kishi House. So, this is an old residence built in 1915, so it’s not that old, but uh yeah, it’s a cultural uh property uh here in Nishiwaki. So, let’s go and have a look. The house completed in 1918 was the home of Ume Kitschi Kishi, a successful cotton merchant during Nishiwaki’s textile boom. The first things we notice when we enter the building are the high ceilings and exposed timber beams. Oh, check that Japanese helmet. Don’t know what era it is, but maybe World War II. Throughout the house, you’ll find items from different eras. Ready to cook dinner. So, a steamer. Yeah. Two steamer steamers. I love I love the little electrical. Look at this. So, we got the the old well for the kitchen and for the household outside here. Well, well. Well, the complex is made up of five buildings. the main house, a detached house for guests, complete with its own drawing room, a separate bathroom for guests, and two storehouses. Every rich household has their own storehouse. They kept all the the dry goods, the rice, and all the valuables in there. Yeah. Check out those doors. Yeah. All fireproof. See? Oh, they are heavy. Oh, yeah. A striking feature of this house is that all of the buildings open onto a garden area as it was designed specifically with garden tea ceremonies in mind. Let’s go to the toilet. I just got to go to the toilet. Um, no privacy. Well, there is privacy. Look, you see nobody can see standing here. Right. Look, we got another urinal and wasiki. I want that vest. Oh, you are. Yeah. Chaplain. Chap. On the second floor, you’ll find tummy rooms with more historical items. This creepy dolls, these are only mildly creepy dolls, Liz. According to the expense books, the construction costs 84,000 yen at the time, which in today’s terms would be over $3 million US. Kishi House was donated to the city of Nishiwaki in 2001 by Ume Kitschi’s descendants and opens its doors to visitors for free. Although it’s a museum, local community events are held here like this cotton spinning workshop. I’m not very good at this. I feel like it’s Good, good, good, you got the hang of it now. I think so. All right, make me a jumper. Saw this. This a bonsai nashi tree. Yeah, I’ve never seen that before. Crazy. All right. Former Kishi residence here in Nishiwaki. Yeah, well worth the stop. Best thing, free entry. We’re here on a Sunday. Pros and cons of coming on a Sunday. is busier, but inside they had different events. They had kids playing cards. They had a little cotton spinning workshop. Uh the kimono repurposing. So, well worth it. All right, let’s get on to our next stop. Let’s go. Okay, we’re here at Banchu Textile Museum. So Nishiwaki is famous for its banu audi which is a dying process I think for uh garments textiles. So let’s go and have a look. Wow, check out how complex this all the individual threads. All the different threads on here. It just looks like a mess. Just looks like cotton. I was just about to say that. Yeah. Then it all comes together to a beautiful and this all goes up and down. Just imagine makes a fabric. Ladies making the textile in the old days. This museum doubles as a store selling fabrics, clothing and accessories designed and produced by locals. There are exhibits throughout the building and demonstrations of the machinery used in textile production are often given on Sundays. This is a lunch on mat. I like the lunch on that. Some shoe. Yeah. Look, it says unsho. Yeah. All right. I’m thinking I’m thinking this one. A blue and pink. What do you think? Is it all right? Very good. Okay. I like it. So just across the road and up a little bit from the textile museum is the Isahi market. So this must have been an old choteni or shopping street back in the the shower period. People still live here so we’ll be quiet. Check this place. It’s like stepping back in time. This timber arcade was completed in 1918 and was originally built as a communal dormatory for female workers at a local Bunchu weaving factory. Wow, this place is so cool. Huh. So, there’s two streets. This one looks in better condition than the other one. Wow, this place is so cool. You can imagine years ago would have been a bustling hub of the area. It’s just so peaceful in here. Yeah, it feels abandoned. Like there’s got to be people living here, but we haven’t seen anybody else. It’s a really eerie kind of feeling. I hope they preserve it. It’s really cool. My god, it’s on. I love the little balconies things up here. Yeah, I’m not sure how many people still live in these houses, but I don’t think there’s anybody in this one. They got these little alleyways down here. It’s so cool. Oh. Yeah. Really cool. Here in Nishiwaki, do not miss it. When you’re here, you walk down the street, make sure you turn left. All right, whichever way you’re going. Otherwise, you’ll miss it. But look at that. Bit of living history. All right, lunchtime. Let’s go see what we can find for lunch. Burger crazy. On the reviews, it looks pretty good. So, let’s go and get a burger. Oh, smells good. Mhm. Does chili t burger. Red hot burger. I can’t decide. They all look too good. Definitely get some onion rings. So, we get the fine bacon cheeseburger, pulled pork burger. Yes. And some homemade onion rings. Yes. So, because I’m driving, I can get a nice Corona non-alcoholic beer. These are really good, actually. Most nonolic be pretty good. And check out the coaster. A little LP. Wow. Look at that. That looks pretty damn good. I love the chips, too. like crunchy with the the skin on. Try one of those. It’s chipped away with it. Look at that. I want to see you bite that. How am I going to eat this? Oh my god. Dislocate your jaw to get around that. Are you going to take the knife out? Let me Let me this. Oh, good. Before you stab yourself in the You can do it. I can’t open my mouth. Oh my god. Look how thick the bacon is on. Yum. Excellent. Great. We had planned to go half and half, but soon eating that one. Too simple. I’m having this one myself. It’s pretty yummy. This one’s good, too. So, dessert. Homemade cheesecake. It looks pretty good. Let’s have a taste. I love this. Looks like a little shovel. All right, let’s try this. Really yummy. All right. What do you think, man? All right. I You’re the cheesecake. be the one who says whether it’s yummy or not. It’s soft. It’s not like a baked cheesecake. Really light. Yeah, it is really light. Good flavor. Japanese sweet. Not too sweet. A little bit of You keep filming and I’ll just keep eating. It’s got a little bit of sound to it. It’s really nice. Yeah. Just a good balance, right? You don’t want anymore, right? Uh, yes, I do. Stop. Well, I can tell you I’m glad this place is just an hour’s drive from home because we will definitely be back. I mean, five stars. Burgers, fantastic. The crunchy potatoes, not chips, but little chunks of potato. Perfect. Crunchy, light on the inside. Onion rings. The same crunchy light on the inside. Do yourself a favor. If you’re ever in the area, come here. Burger Crazy. King of Glutton. Oh, and the cheesecake. I’ve got the cheesecake. Cheesecake was delicious as well. Oh, yeah. Do it. So, just outside of Nishiwaki, if you want the Anari Shrine experience without the crowds of Kyoto, we found the place. Check this out. And we got the place to ourselves. We we were just admiring the amazing Japanese workmanship here. Oh, it’s leaning slightly. That’s all right. Let’s just chop it with a piece of They don’t have the uh See all the names on here? Yeah. All the names. These are the people who donated these. Mhm. So obviously they’re not getting any more donations people for the old shrine and they’re all falling apart. What do we got under here? Don’t even know. Oh, look. More steps. More steps. Just what I want. Yeah. Our favorite. Got to burn off that burger. That’s true. Chips and cheesecake. This is the Oka Inari Shrine which was established over 160 years ago in 1860 as a branch of the famous Fushimi Inari Tisha in Kyoto. Visitors can write their wishes on these wooden prayer plaques called Emma which feature a white fox, the divine messenger of Inari. Yep, that’s the road we’re walking down. We’re almost back to the car, but of course, Les chooses to go cross country because he saw a little bridge and he wants to cross it. It’s not raining. I think it’ be nice water coming down here across the bridge that there’s chairs and everything here to enjoy the garden and we can get back up to here the Tor gates. Okay, not far from the center of town is Sirenji Temple. Now, this temple is 1,400 years old. That’s old. So, let’s take a walk through and check it out. Yep. Les is just steering the temple. Straight ahead, Captain. Look at this cruel guy. Look what he’s doing to this poor poor creature. Oh, look at the little little houses on the hill here. like little fairy houses. I’ve never seen that before. When we were looking online at places to see in in the area, there were photos of this in the autumn and the leaves had just completely changed color, red and orange and yellow and they’ even fallen down on the ground and just made like a carpet. Very nice. So lovely and cool in here, too. That nice breeze. Yeah, it’s just the perfect temperature right now. So, this one has a sensor, so it only turns on when it notices someone’s coming to use it. It’s very STG friendly. All right. In the temple grounds here, there’s a pathway and there’s 88 of these statues. Now, we think it’s depicting the 88 temple pilgrimage on Shikaku cuz one of the monks that was here trained in a a temple on Shikaku. So, there’s 88 of them. There’s 88 pilgrimage on Shikaku. So, we don’t have to do all that. We can just make our own little pilgrimage here. It’ be much faster. Oh. Oh, we’re at another temple. 8 9 10 60 56 62 79 80 83 86 87 Did we miss one somewhere? I miss Oh, no. There’s one like this down at the the beginning. Oh, at the beginning. at the base. So, we didn’t count. So, there’s the 88. Woohoo. So, it’s actually 88 temples. So, what did you think, Liz, of of this stop? Is it worth stopping here? It’s worth stopping here, of course. It’s it’s like all the the Buddhist temples, even the shrines you go to. It’s it’s just so peaceful. And you know, and especially on a warm day, they’re always in a beautiful forest, so you can get away from the heat. And they’re just such a serene place. Just just Yeah. Beautiful stop. Yeah. Especially these sort of spots where there’s nobody else. We haven’t seen anybody else here. Yeah. And again, there was an older couple down at the entrance reading books. They come here to read their books in the shade. That’s I like what what better place to sit in a beautiful forest and read your book and I mean guys come on some forest bathing. Come on guys look forget Tokyo forget Kyoto like you have these places all to yourself when we were at the Inari Shrine to ourselves here this beautiful historic uh temple all to ourselves. Yeah, there are definitely hidden gems to be found. Oh, it’s just fantastic. All right, our next stop, the Tambber Dinosaur Museum, and we’re here to check out the Tambosaurus. Apparently, this dinosaur was found in this area. So, hence the name Tambasaurus. Let’s go check it out. Entry to the museum is 300 yen for adults and although compact has a large selection of exhibits. Tampa Titanis was first discovered in August of 2006 by two geology enthusiasts in the riverbed of the Sasayyama River. However, it took years to excavate the fossil because they were only able to access the skeleton during winter when the water level of the river was at its lowest. What do you think so far? It’s very interesting. It’s very cool. I love dinosaur stuff. It’s so good. Look at that teeth on that thing. It looks like a mongoose crossed with something, right? A weaselosaurus. A weaselaurus. First time I’ve ever held a dinosaur bone. Is it the female? Okay. Tampa Dinosaur Museum. Yeah, if you’re in the area, well worth a drop in. Only 300 yen for adults entrance fee. We only spent about 10 to 15 minutes in there. There’s a little bit of English in there, so you’ll be able to navigate around. Otherwise, got your Google machine, you can do it, no problem. All right, that’s where we’re going to leave it. If you’re new to the channel, please hit that subscribe button, like and share, and we will catch you next time. Bye for now.

Only an hour’s drive from our place in Kobe is Nishiwaki, a small town of just 40,000 people with something for everyone! From fascinating museums to a mini Fushimi Inari Shrine, and even a few dinosaurs along the way, we set out to explore everything this hidden gem has to offer.

If you’re looking for the real side of Japan, far from the crowds, come along and we’ll show you places only the locals know about!
Places we visited:

Toryu-Nada – https://share.google/DHc0IwY5S0B47bLup
Kishi House – https://share.google/WsVTpShjTIjZqoh5f
Banshu Textile Museum- https://share.google/t4mHTa2iwZMx1ExGN
Asahi Market – https://share.google/hWn46KeRr3fAWj76f
Burger Crazy – https://share.google/6wUTyK49r19zy8WzQ
Oka Inari Shrine – https://share.google/Xrb3byTH3mfH3SBlP
Sairin-Ji – Temple https://share.google/gQDQMndcOOm2NqKvJ
Tamba Dinosaur Museum – https://share.google/ghxLeYDBTY87S93pK

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
00:44 Bellybutton Park
01:15 Toryu-Nada – A man-made canal
04:32 Former Kishi Residence
09:59 Asahi Market – Old dormitory street
13:10 Burger Crazy – Lunch!
16:57 Oka Inari Shrine – Are we in Kyoto?
19:43 Sairin-Ji Temple – Homage to the 88 Temple Pilgrimage
25:25 Tamba Dinosaur Museum

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