Special Place of Scenic Beauty, Amanohashidate

One of the most interesting lists created by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in order to protect the cultural heritage of Japan is "Places of Scenic Beauty" (meisho), including 333 destinations. There's also an even more interesting sub-list, titled "Special Places of Scenic Beauty" (tokubetsu meisho), with 36 destinations including viewpoints, gardens, bridges, rock formations, waterfalls, lakes, islands, volcanoes, etc.

One of these amazing places is the narrow sandbar from Amanohashidate which connects the two sides of the Miyazu Bay. With a length of three kilometers and a width varying from 20 to a few dozen meters, the Amanohashidate sandbar is covered by a forest of 7,000 pine-trees, some of them so beautiful that they have their own names...