Michi-no-Eki Shihara Kaigan and Bear's Rock (Roadside Station)

Overview

Michi-no-Eki Shihara Kaigan stands on National Route 42 at Hiki, in the Hikigawa district of Shirahama, registered since 1995. The stop is worth making for what lies across the road. Shihara Coast is on the prefecture's list of a hundred sunrise-and-sunset views, chosen for its sunsets, and a short walk along the sand brings you to Bear's Rock — a bear's head, apparently half-buried in the shore, watching the Pacific. It is on the national register of Japan's remarkable rock formations. The whole coast is a Nanki Kumano Geopark geosite: beds of sandstone and mudstone laid down 15 to 20 million years ago, then planed flat by the waves.

The building is called Miraikan, and its ground-floor shop doubles as the showcase of the Hikigawa chamber of commerce. Look for ayu-chobi: wild sweetfish from the Hikigawa cured a month in sea salt, then a month more in olive oil, and certified Premier Wakayama. Beside it sit Kawazoe tea, grown up the valley since the early Edo period, and financiers baked with it; kinzanji miso; raw honey from native bees. An eat-in corner sells cakes and puddings made on the premises. Upstairs, the restaurant reopened in March 2026 as Bear's Rock Shokudo with a Western-leaning menu and terrace seats facing the rock; the relaunch reset its hours, so check the official site.

A reflexology path of beach pebbles, graded so the pressure sharpens as you go, runs through the small park by the car park, with benches facing the sea. The Pacific Coast Cycling Route passes the door. Half an hour along the shore lie Shihara Senjojiki, a broad wave-cut platform, and Torige Cave, which can be reached only at low tide — the town warns of falling rock and asks visitors to look from outside or wear a helmet. It is ten minutes by car from Hikigawa interchange, or from Kii-Hiki on the JR Kisei Main Line; parking is free.