1 / 2Taro seawallsPhoto: Yasu / CC BY-SA 3.0
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Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
The town that built a 10-metre, 2.4 km X-shaped seawall between 1934 and 1979, watched the 2011 sea overtop it, and rebuilt higher. The most honest 2011 site on the coast — guided “Learning Disaster” tours must be booked ahead (¥5,000 for 1–9 people, 60 min). By train, take the 9:20 out and the 11:40 back (or the 12:35 and the 15:00); by taxi it is about 20 minutes each way.
- 4 hr door to door needs a 6-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
Why Taro seawalls is famous
Taro built a ten-metre seawall shaped like an X, the largest in Japan, after tsunamis in 1896 and 1933. In March 2011 the wave came over it. The town has deliberately preserved a broken section and a gutted hotel as a memorial, and guides who survived it will walk you through.
Taro seawalls and your ship
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
Where the 4 hr goes
Counted from the moment you step off the gangway, about 30 minutes after the ship arrives. The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside.
30 minutes each way is the measured figure for sanriku rly ¥510 · ~30 min each way via miyako station · guide: book ahead, not the optimistic one. If your ship is late, cut the 3 hr in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.
Routes that already include it
Each one is a finished day timed from the official timetables, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
See · ~1.5hJodogahama Beach
White rhyolite spires over water so clear the monks called it Paradise — the single image of the Sanriku coast, 10–15 minutes by taxi from your berth..
See the detail
Do · ~2hBlue Cave sappa boat
Twenty minutes in a tiny sappa skiff into a cove that glows cobalt — no reservations, sea decides.
See the detail
Eat · ~1h15Bin-don at the Gyosai Market
Miyako’s own invention: uni, roe or squid served in a milk bottle you pour over rice yourself — born from how fishermen carried raw uni to market..
See the detail