Aomori · HachinoheNo.837★★Open in map →
Tanesashi Coast
In the far east of Hachinohe, a terrace of natural grass runs all the way to the rocks and the open Pacific. It is a National Place of Scenic Beauty inside Sanriku Fukko National Park, unfenced and free to walk, with a train station standing at its edge.
- FromHachinohe Station
- ~40 minJR Hachinohe Line, local trains
- Get off atTanesashi-Kaigan Station (JR Hachinohe Line)
- On foot
- Tanesashi Coast
The sweet spot
This is a designated scenic site with a visitor centre and a car park, so it is not a hidden place. What keeps it uncrowded is geography and timing: it sits at the far end of a local line out of Hachinohe, and the grass is at its emptiest before the morning buses and cars arrive.
Where it is
34 more notes in Aomori · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Ashigezaki Observatorya fortress-like lookout on the cape past Samekado Lighthouse, and the northern trailhead of the coastal footpath
- Nakasukarocky inlets called the flower shore, where dune plants and mountain plants bloom along the same path
- Osuka Beacha long crescent of singing sand that squeaks underfoot when it is dry
- The Michi markera stone beside the coast road standing for the view behind Higashiyama Kaii's painting
- Tanesashi natural lawnthe grass terrace running down to the boulders, with the visitor centre and a free rest house facing it
How to actually get there
- Hachinohe Station to Tanesashi-Kaigan Station (JR Hachinohe Line local towards Kuji, about 35 to 40 min).
- Tanesashi-Kaigan Station to the lawn and visitor centre (walk about 3 min across the coast road).
- Walk north on the coastal footpath as far as Osuka Beach or Ashigezaki, then turn back for the train.
- Finish on the grass, with the rest house and its cafe at your back.
- JR Hachinohe Line from Hachinohe Station
- Hachinohe Station to Tanesashi-Kaigan Station on a local Hachinohe Line train bound for Kuji, roughly 35 to 40 minutes. The line hugs the shore for the last part of the run, so sit on the seaward side. Tanesashi-Kaigan is an unstaffed single-platform halt.
- Return from Tanesashi-Kaigan Station
- The same Hachinohe Line runs back towards Hachinohe Station. Services on the southern half of the line are thin, so photograph the return timetable on the platform when you arrive. If a gap opens up, the Umineko sightseeing bus links the coastal stops back towards Same Station.
About the place
The designated coast runs about 12 kilometres, from Kabushima in the north to Okuki in the south. Most of that length is rock and sand, but the stretch beside Tanesashi-Kaigan Station is different: a terrace of natural grass that ends at the boulders and the sea. Horses were grazed along this shore for generations, and it is that grazing that kept the turf low and the terrace open. More than 650 plant species grow across the coast, so a single footpath can carry dune flowers and mountain flowers side by side. The lawn is unfenced and free, with a visitor centre and a public rest house looking straight onto it.
How to enjoy it
The lawn faces east over open water, so the first light of the day arrives off the sea, and the station sits right at its edge, which makes an early start possible without a car. By the middle of the day the grass fills up in the best way, with picnic mats and the cafe in the rest house doing steady trade. Given half a day, ride one stop further north, walk the footpath south from Ashigezaki, and finish on the turf.
Background & history
Tanesashi was designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty in 1937, taking in the shore and the land behind it. After the war it became a prefectural natural park, and it now forms the northern end of Sanriku Fukko, the Sanriku Reconstruction National Park. The painter Higashiyama Kaii sketched the pasture and the road behind this shore, and that sketch became Michi, one of the best-known Japanese paintings of the postwar era. A stone marker stands beside the coast road at the spot where he is said to have worked.
Before you go
- Cash
- The lawn, the coastal footpath and the rest house are all free to use. Tanesashi-Kaigan has no ticket window, so keep your ticket and settle the fare at Hachinohe.
- Before you go
- The lawn has no gate and no lighting, so there is nothing to see here after dark and the coast road is unlit. The cold sea wind called yamase can bring fog through early summer and shut the view down within minutes. The visitor centre keeps shorter hours in the winter months.
- Another way
- By car it is under an hour from Hachinohe Station or from the city centre, and the visitor centre has a free car park with an overflow lot nearby. The Umineko sightseeing bus also works along the coast from Same Station and stops at the visitor centre.
- After you get off
- From Tanesashi-Kaigan Station, cross the coast road and walk about three minutes; the grass opens out in front of the visitor centre and the rest house.