Awaji Island is full of beautiful nature where people of all ages can enjoy the seasons, relax and stroll through the perfectly kept parks and gardens. Along with many traditional sites, there are also some contemporary seaside cafes popping up, trying to draw more young people to the island.
Project Kobe set off to explore some of these places in the northwestern pocket of Awaji where the Pasona Group (a large HR company) have built a series of cafe/restaurants for the Instagram generation.
Access to Awaji
Driving, getting a highway express bus from Sannomiya or a local bus from JR Maiko are the most common ways.
However, there is one more way to get across and that’s catching a ferry from Akashi, this was our best option. The Awaji Jenova Line ferry terminal is about 600m from Akashi Station. The 15 minute journey to Iwaya Port on Awaji costs just ¥500 one way. From here you can catch the free shuttle bus to the places below.
Nojima Scuola
Our first stop (actually the last on the bus) was Nojima Scuola, a former elementary school come cafe, restaurant & marketplace. This is nice little spot with plenty of parking for families coming by car. The marketplace sells good local produce and has a fresh bakery. The bread can be enjoyed on the front lawn. For the craft beer lovers the shop has a nice selection of Nojima Scuola produced beer plus the local Awaji Island beer.
The first floor cafe serves mostly Italian cuisine with a salad/pizza buffet. Arriving early, 11am, my wife was quick to put our name on the list for lunch. This being in the middle of Golden Week there were already queues forming when the cafe opened at 11:30.
The pasta lunch was simple with natural flavours, nothing to rave about. The salad bar and pizza (if you could get a slice) was all fresh using local Awaji ingredients. We could comfortably enjoy sitting out on the terrace and were in no rush to leave. Cafe costs were around ¥1500 per meal.
The second floor was a little more fancier and had a course style restaurant and the third has a BBQ terrace that runs on weekends and public holidays
The only small criticism I have of Nojima Scuola is the place was lacking clear signage and explanations, in Japanese and nothing in English. When you have a multi-restaurant facility this is a must and something easy to implement. Customers coming and sitting on the outside terrace and staff had to keep directing them to the queue was on the inside. We also didn’t realize the second floor restaurant was completely different until after lunch.
As a random bonus there is a small stable on the other side of the parking lot with a couple of goats and some llamas (or were they alpacas?)!
Miele
A short walk down the hill from Nojima Scuola and you’ll arrive at Miele, a very popular seaside cafe where you can expect long queues on fine days. Mostly groups of girls, guys or couples in their 20’s come here to enjoy the simple menu of burgers, pizza and desserts while taking pics for Instagra or Snapchat and enjoying the ocean views from the terrace.
Ocean Terrace
Hop across the road and you’ll get to Ocean Terrace. Perhaps this is aimed at slightly older generations who don’t need to Instagram every bite but still want to enjoy outside dining with ocean views. There is a cheaper curry cafe on the second floor and are more pricey Ocean Grill restaurant serving premium Awaji beef and Australian Black Angus steaks on the 3rd.
Although we didn’t eat here, the menu seemed to be the best of the bunch, especially for dinner, with this in mind we are planning to come back.
Hello Kitty Smile
Peaking around the bend in the road you can see the newest shop, Hello Kitty Smile. It’ an easiest enough walk from Ocean Terrace but some parts of the road can be quite narrow.
We wanted to like Hello Kitty Smile but unfortunately it’s overpriced with poor service. So let’s move on.
Craft Circus
This is another Instagram favourite with palm trees, scattered furniture, heart shapes and terrace dining with seaside views. Groups and couples of 20-something-year-olds were posing for the perfect selfie.
The menu at Craft Circus is similar to Miele with burgers, sandwiches and rice dishes, nothing special except for the crab/lobster dishes you can order on weekends and public holidays. There is no table service so you have to line up to order and you get your little buzzer to collect the food when it’s ready. Expect long queues on weekends, as was the case during Golden Week.
With the waiting time quite long, having a seperate line for ordering drinks would be good as I wasn’t going to stand in line for another 20 minutes to get another beer.
The Final Word
All the above places were nice, but that’s it. Just nice seaside cafes with views of the sea and reasonable food. Perhaps I’ve been spoilt growing up in Australia and going to waterfront dining all my life but there wasn’t anything about these places that will draw me back there again and again (I’m hoping Ocean Terrace might change my mind).
Being a beer drinker, I would like to see a selection of craft beer available at each place, including the local brewed Awaji Beer. Tastier coffee, happy hour specials, more variety on the menus, regular live music/performances would all increase the desire to return.
The free shuttle bus was fantastic and the ferry was very convenient, the trip under the Akashi Kaikyo bridge should be marketed as a sightseeing trip in itself. Both Akashi and Awaji should update the ports with some international signage to assist tourists.
Kobe, Awaji and the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge should be world famous, just like the Golden Gate Bridge and Sydney Harbour. It’s been 20 years since Akashi Kaikyo was built, I hope it isn’t another 20 years for the region to realise it’s amazing potential.