Amanohashidate

Amanohashidate is one of Japan's three scenic views. The sandbar is located in Miyazu Bay in northern Kyoto Prefecture.A thin strip of land connects two opposing sides of Miyazu Bay. This sand bar is 3.3 km long and covered with about 7,000 pine trees.
The sand bar is best viewed from the hills on either side of the bay, which are both accessible by chair lift or cablecar.

To view the sand bar as a "bridge in the heaven", turn your back towards the bay, bend over and look at it from between your legs. Travelers to Amanohashidate have been doing this for more than a millenium.
It can be viewed from mountains on either side of the bay or it can be traversed on foot.

Near the southern end is Chion-ji, a Buddhist temple.

Also, on this bar is the Isoshimizu fresh water well cherished since the Heian period, which was selected as one of 100 best springs and rivers in Japan by the Environmental Agency in 1985.
At the southern end of the sand bar, which is just a few steps from the railway station, stands Chionji, a nice Buddhist temple with a small tahoto, a kind of pagoda which still resembles the Indian stupa more than the more common three and five storied Japanese pagoda.
It takes about two hours and 4,380 yen to reach Amanohashidate from Kyoto by direct limited express train, while direct limited express trains from Osaka take a few minutes more and cost 5,240 yen. By local trains, the trip takes more than twice as long, but is roughly half as expensive.

Japan Rail Pass users note, that the trains to Amanohashidate run on non-JR tracks (owned by the Kitakinkitango Railway) on the last 35 kilometers between Fukuchiyama and Amanohashidate. This means, that pass holders need to pay a supplementary fee of 1,480 yen (one way) at Amanohashidate Station.

If you use local trains on the non-JR tracks instead of the limited express, the supplementary fee is 740 yen between Fukuchiyama and Amanohashidate.