Matsuzaki

After visiting the Muroiwa Cave we chose to have a quick stop in the local town of Matsuzaki. On our drive in, we saw it had been designated as one of Japan’s “Most Beautiful Villages”. There’s a fair few of these villages scattered across Japan. The name is a tiny bit of a misnomer, as it’s not a ranked list - I think towns might self-select to join. Nonetheless if you’re looking to slow travel across Japan it could be a cool idea to hop between some of these little villages. A brochure we picked up later Matsuzaki is famed for a number of things, according to this brochure - its sunset, rice paddies and the little cave that we had just visited. Unfortunately we didn’t get to check those out to fully appreciate Matsuzaki. Like Shimoda, we found ourselves walking through quite a sleepy part of the town, so there was not much happening. Unlike Shimoda, the town centre does offer free parking at its Tourist Information Centre which gives Matsuzaki bonus points. As we got out of the car,…