Kayaking the Coast of Kihoku

We drove down to a small beach in a rural part of Kihoku.

There were only about a few dozen houses in this area and the rest was untouched beautiful nature.

We followed signs for Kiora paddle, who we’ll be kayaking with today, and arrived at a small parking lot next to a traditional Japanese guesthouse and a trendy looking Hawaiian cafe”Douze Shokudo”.  "Doze Shokudo" looked very trendy and even had an outdoor pizza oven! Needless to say, we’ll definitely be eating here afterwards.

Our kayak guide was an outgoing person who looked like he was in his mid 20s. After the initial introduction and simple paperwork, he led us over to a pebble beach where the kayak were ready to go.

There was 3 of us so he prepared one double and one single kayak near the water. I started off on the double kayak with the instructor and Kihira-san（attendant） rode the single kayak.

And off we went to explore the coast of Kihoku.

It was a miracle.

It was raining all around Kihoku and we thought this activity would get cancelled. With no expectations, we drove about 10 minutes to the coast and there was nothing but sunshine.

There were mountains around this coast which protected us from the rain clouds.
Truly a good day.

I had gone kayaking in Toba just a few days ago, but this was a completely different experience. When kayaking in the Ise Bay, the waters was calm and our kayak was really balanced.

The kayaks we were on today are more lightweight, faster, and easier to paddle. In exchange, it’s much harder to keep balanced, especially when there are more waves in the Kihoku coast.

After passing by multiple remote islands, we anchored our kayaks on an island with a wide open beach. There were also some trees and rocks surrounding the beach and it was the perfect place to relax and enjoy the midday tropical view.

To make things better, our guide took out some camping gear from his kayak and started a fire with some of the branches. He boiled some water and put a fist sized aluminum ball in the middle of the fire.

It turns out he was preparing the best midday snack for a remote island trip: coffee and a whole apple stuffed with cinnamon, butter, and sugar.

At this point, life couldn’t get any better.

On the return route, we switched kayaks and I manned the single rider kayak. It was much harder to keep balance on this one since I didn’t have a professional kayak guide to depend on.

On the 2 person kayak, I could bend over and look into the ocean underneath, but with this kayak, I had to hold myself back or else I’d tip over.

Nevertheless, this kayak was also fun and I had tons of fun on the way back!

After our kayak session, we returned back to the parking lot area and changed into our normal clothes. It was midday and we decided to have lunch at the Hawaiian cafe"Doze Shokudo"

There were a couple of indoor seats, but we decided to go with the outdoor seats since the weather was nice. Even though the seats were outside, we had to take our shoes off, which oddly felt really nice.

There were many options to choose from and although there was an outdoor brick oven for the pizza, I decided to go with the loco moco and shaved ice.

"Doze Shokudo"

The meat from the loco moco was really juicy and the dish came with plenty of vegetables for a balanced meal. The strawberry shaved ice is all organic, with the sauce made from fresh strawberries, mixed with condensed milk.

The Hawaiian cafe "Doze Shokudo"was an incredibly great decision.

Although we didn’t order pizza, the next customer did and the fresh baked pizza also looked incredibly delicious.

During our kayak, we saw a white tower peeking out from the mainland, so we decided to take a visit after.

We showed up at an empty parking lot and from there, it was a small walk through a mossy, untouched pathway to get to the tower.

Normally I’d be suspicious about going somewhere like this, but it doesn’t seem like an abandoned area and our kayak guide earlier confirmed that it’s a great place to get views of the whole area.

Once we got to the top, we arrived at a flat lawn with a bunch of trees and a tall white tower. The trees are surrounding this area so there’s no views yet.

It turns out this tower is called the Takatsukayama Observation Deck and there was absolutely nobody here.

I entered the tower and inside was a spiral staircase with sunlight coming in from above. Once I climbed the staircase, I went outside to the second floor deck and there was a beautiful 360 view of the entire area.

On one side was the coastal side, where we went kayaking, and the other side was a small village with mountains surrounding it. The views were absolutely incredible and there was no better place to end my time in Mie.

Japan has some beautiful nature and hidden gems that you really have to travel off the beaten path to discover. Kihoku is a beautiful town that I’ve never heard of prior to visiting and it definitely blew past any expectations I’ve had.

There’s beautiful coastal views, delicious food, and a ton of marine activities to enjoy. I hope that after reading this, you’ll also visit and enjoy this small hidden town of Kihoku!

〇kiaora Paddle

https://www.kiaorapaddle.com/

〇Doze Shokudo

https://kihoku-kanko.com/eat/3413/

〇Takatsukayama Park

https://kihoku-kanko.com/see/4874/