Hotokegaura Cliffs

Hotokegaura runs about two kilometres along the western shore of the Shimokita Peninsula, where soft white tuff has been cut by the sea into pillars, arches and spires up to ninety metres high, pale enough to look bleached. The name means the Buddha shore, and the individual formations carry names - the thirteen Buddhas, the guardian rock - given by people who read figures into them. Access is the constraint: the boat from Sai takes about half an hour each way and includes thirty minutes ashore, and it does not run in swell. A road on the peninsula reaches a clifftop car park from which a steep path of several hundred steps drops to the beach, but that road is narrow, winding and closed in winter. The whole peninsula is remote, and this is a half-day committed rather than a stop on the way to anything.

What you actually see

• White tuff pillars - soft pale rock eroded into columns and arches up to ninety metres.
• The named figures - formations read as Buddha images and named accordingly.
• Access by sea - a boat from Sai with about half an hour ashore.
• The step path - a steep descent from the clifftop road as the alternative.

When to go

May to October. Half a day. Calm mornings for the boat.

Honest expectations

Boats are cancelled in swell and the season is short. The clifftop road is narrow and closed in winter. The footpath is several hundred steps down and back. Shimokita is remote with limited transport.

Nearby

Osorezan is east across the peninsula; Mutsu is the regional town.