People have been traveling to Amanohashidate for centuries, and this week apparently bears are too.

Amanohashidate, located on the northern coast of Kyoto Prefecture, is considered one of the three most beautiful places in Japan (the other being Miyajima and Matsushima). Amanohashidate translates to “bridge to the heavens,” and it got that name because the strip of land that stretches across the bay here is said to look like a pathway rising into the sky.

Celebrated in poems and painting for centuries, Amanohashidate’s beauty continues to draw travelers today, with people coming from across Japan and around the world to take in the view. This week’s visitors, however, have included two bears.

In another instance in the growing trend of bears showing up in unexpected places in Japan, shortly after 4:30 in the afternoon on June 10 a call was placed to the 110 emergency services phone number reporting a bear that was spotted at the north end of Amanohashidate. The strip of land was evacuated and sealed off, and police and animal control personnel were dispatched to the scene. Firecrackers were used to scare the bear off of the bridge, after which it fled into the ocean and swam back towards the bay’s northern shore to the west of Amanohashidate. After coming back onto dry land, the bear climbed a tree and was then shot with a tranquilizer dart, falling asleep around 10:40 p.m. No injuries to humans were reported.

▼ And yes, some of the response team was equipped with handheld shields, like they were knights heading out to face off with a dragon or ogre.

Now, a visit to one of Japan’s top sightseeing spots, a quick swim, and getting to bed at a relatively early hour would be a pretty good day for most people, but the city of Miyazu, where Amanohashidate is located, doesn’t ordinarily get bears in this district, and so its appearance is cause for concern…and that concern has grown deeper with the spotting of a second bear, which was seen at Amanohashidate on the morning of June 12 at roughly 7:30. This bear was spotted by a foreign tourist, and after the report came in Amanohashidate was once again evacuated and closed off. As of this writing, the bear remains at large.

Source: TBS News Dig (1, 2), Nitele News
Top image: Wikipedia/Sylvestre
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