9 November 2019
A bridge between two tunnels
From Niigata to Yamagata on the slow train
Slow train really wasnt that slow. All up about 4 hours door to door.
The first train went from Niigata to Yonezawa, through spectacular scenery. Some of the mountains had a lot of snow on them.
This was a diesel 2 carriage train and a 3 hour journey that seemed to last about 1 hour. The scenery was spectacular enough that most of the Japanese people were standing taking photos just as I was. The best scenery was generally when you went over a bridge between two tunnels, however I could not ever properly capture that! A lot of the ravines had bright blue water.
There were 2 issues. There was a guy on the train that stank of 3 week old beer and urine. He drank 5 cans of beer at 9am within the first hour of getting on the train. His wife was mad at him every time he opened another can, and he would then yell at her. It was an uncomfortable situation, but not as uncomfortable as the temperature.
It was about 5 degrees outside, and yet it was actually 31 degrees celsius on the train. I took my fancy watch off and accurately measured the temperature, I could not believe how hot it was. Everyone was fanning themselves.
Once at Yonezawa, there was only 5 minutes to change trains, which involved running up one platform, heaving my bag over the overpass thingy, and running back down another platform.
Generally you can follow the crowd, but it seemed a lot of the crowd were taking the Shinkansen towards Tokyo. I only made the next train by a few seconds.
The second train was about an hour from Yonezawa to Yamagata, this was just a regular electric train, traveling up a highly populated yet mountainous corridor. Also, because I went from JR central to JR east (I think), the gates wouldnt let me out with my ICOCA card. I had to go to the window and tell them I got on at Niigata and they had to look up the fare and deduct it with their machine. I dont know if they could tell where I got on or if it works purely on the honor system.
Yamagata first impressions, its a tourist town, near Mount Zao where I will go to tomorrow. As such theres a lot of restaurants and shops etc. It seems busier than Niigata city, which allegedly has 3x the population of Yamagata.
Here comes my small train to collect me. Its features included, a volcanic heating system powered by pure lava, a squatter toilet, and a lot of rubbish bins.
The inside of the train looks just like any other Japanese train.
Soon after we left Niigata, the scenery became great, however I did not do a great job of capturing it today.
At one stage I was called upon to drive the train.
I spent most of my time looking out the back window like this. Reflections in the glass were making it hard to take photos in the bright sun. This is an example of where I missed the ideal shot from a bridge between two tunnels.
Most of the journey was very colorful, this BODES WELL for my activity for the day after tomorrow, assuming theres some sun on that day.
Here is a snow plow train. The driver of this is one of the luckiest people in the world.
Those mountains you can just see in the distance have a lot of snow on the top, despite not being that high. I missed 3 earlier opportunities to get a better photo while the train was much closer to them.
Eventually we came out the other side of the mountains into a very flat valley.
Now in Yamagata, the street from the station to my hotel is quite busy.
Out the front of my hotel there are a series of street bells strategically placed to keep me awake all night.
Too early to check in of course, my next activity was to head to the Yamagata castle, one of the top 100 castles of Japan!
Here is the castle.
Wait... HERE is the castle.
Hmm, actually here is part of the castle wall, last reconstructed in 1890 something. I am unsure if all the construction going on is for a castle reconstruction. If they do reconstruct the castle hopefully they use modern construction techniques and install a fire sprinkler system, unlike the castle that recently burnt down in Okinawa which I visited last year.
The Addams family museum is nearby. Actually its an old hospital. It looks like it was probably a mental asylum, but the signs did not say that. Now its a folk museum.
This cat on the grounds of the former haunted mental hospital collects the souls of the dead. And actually he or she was the ONLY cat I saw. Which is unusual, where theres one cat in a park there are usually 50. Not here, just this scary looking cat.
The mountain over the city, Mount Zao, is actually many mountains, 20 cable cars, an Onsen, a volcanic lake etc. I plan to go there tomorrow and not use the cable car. Sunshine is forecast, so hopefully I get to see the turquoise crater lake.
Back near the station, I think this is the council building. It also has shops, and a Nepalese school orchestra playing Vivaldi?
The view from the station was quite good.
The view from the balcony in my hotel room was better.
My hotel room is fine. Usual sort of thing. An older building, room slightly bigger but a strange angle situation. The bathroom seems to have been redone. Internet is ridiculously fast as ever. In other news, I have discovered that 'google lens' is great, I can just point my phone at signs and it translates them on the go. Now I can 'read' all the weird APA propaganda in my hotel room.