1 / 2Yokai sweets: the eyeball daddyPhoto: At by At / CC BY-SA 3.0
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Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
Shops along the Road sell Medama-oyaji, the eyeball father, as sweets — the souvenir photo and the souvenir, in one. We could not confirm a single named shop or its hours, so look as you walk.
- Short enough to be certain of: 1 hr 30 min door to door, so even a tender day works.
- 1 hr 30 min door to door needs a 3.5-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
Why Yokai sweets: the eyeball daddy is famous
Medama-oyaji, the eyeball father, is a character from Kitaro: a father reduced to a single walking eyeball who lives in his son's eye socket. The shops on the road sell him as sweets, and the joke is entirely intentional. It is the most Sakaiminato thing available.
Where the 1 hr 30 min 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.
15 minutes each way is the measured figure for on the road, not the optimistic one. If your ship is late, cut the 1 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.
3 hr 30 min for bothMizuki Shigeru Road
178 bronze yokai spirits line the 800 metres from the station to the museum — Japan’s strangest, most charming main street, drawn from the manga master born here.
See the detail
3 hr 30 min for bothWhole crab, boiled to order
Buy a crab boiled that morning and crack it yourself — cheaper than any restaurant.
See the detail 4 hr for bothMizuki Shigeru Museum
The life behind the monsters — war, lost arm, late fame — told with the warmth that made GeGeGe no Kitaro a national treasure.
See the detail