SORA to UMI

We were lucky enough to book two nights at this Sora to Umi. The location is stunning - on a clifftop overlooking the sea of Japan. When the sun is shining the colour of the sea is simply amazing. We stayed on half board (breakfast and dinner) and had a very large, more traditional room with tatami mats and futons and a large decked area with lounges and seats to enjoy the view from. For us who are uninitiated to Japan, the multi-course evening meal (I lost count of how many courses) was a fantastic experience. Each course was explained, albeit this was done with the help of an electronic translator as no one spoke English when we stayed there. The place has an Onsen (segregated male/female hot baths) with a view of sea from a large floor to ceiling window. The baths were immaculate. I made full use twice a day. We embraced the full Japanese experience staying here - breakfast was local cuisine, as was dinner. We had a hire car for our stay on the north coast of Kyoto prefecture. The area is very beautiful and the drive east along the cliff/coast road has incredible views - one of which reminded me of that classic view when arriving from the east in to Positano, but without the tourists and congestion! A word of warning, if you search for Sora to Umi on Google maps you may not get the correct location (this is as of Sept 2019). It's just off route 178 on the coast just north of Jotokuji and is labelled as "Nagomian soratoumi".