dr4b | Photopost: Riding the Tadami Line

Back in January, Shinsuke and I were taking a trip to Aizu-Wakamatsu via the Tadami line. The idea then was to see the scenery in the middle of nowhere in Niigata and Fukushima covered in snow. Unfortunately, as I wrote then, we completely FAILED in our quest BECAUSE there was so much snow that the line got snowed in.

That time, we also took a side trip to Doai and Yubiso stations because they are interesting; the way that particular line runs, going out of Tokyo, you go through a really big tunnel, and coming back into Tokyo, you go on a line outside that takes an incline down by going in circles and crossing over its own track. Doai in particular has a 420-step staircase going between the upper and lower stations, which took us 10 minutes to descend, and supposedly takes like 20 to ascend at least.

This time, we did no such thing, and started our trip at 9am instead of 6am.

Shin had an "unlimited local train riding" pass as part of 鉄道の日, the anniversary of the JR train lines, or something like that, on October 14 1872. So we could ride unlimited local trains all day for 3000 yen or so, and thus go to Fukushima in a huge loop like this and come back and all. (The ticket lasted until Oct 17th, which is why we went on Sunday.)

0848 Akabane
1014 Takasaki

1030 Takasaki
1134 Minakami

This part of the trip largely involved just getting the hell out of the city. Since both of us had ridden this a bunch of times before we spent most of the time talking about random crap (like him telling me I should visit Europe, and me telling him he should visit Shikoku), and watched as the scenery turned from tons of buildings into sparser buildings and more trees and mountains.

Minakami is known as the launching point for a tourist steam train that runs between there and Takasaki, I think. One of my students rode it over the summer. Unfortunately they pretty much only have like one passenger car decorated like the old days and the rest are just normal passenger cars that happen to be pulled by a steam engine, so I'm not really sure how interesting it would really be. Anyway, we did see one of those steam trains on the way up there...

The green and orange train we took from Takasaki to Minakami.

I see the steam train from outside my window, along the way.

SL Minakami ad posters in Minakami station.

1141 Minakami
1301 Koide

So, the first part of this trip was in the tunnel again. I got out at Doai to take a picture of the underground station since I remembered it; after that we resurfaced near Tsuchitaru and continued through the countryside to Koide.

What is interesting about this leg of the trip is that so much of it is ski resorts in the winter. Several stations are even LITERALLY next to ski resorts; during the winter the station is right next to the ski lift at Echigo-Nakazato and pretty much right next to it for Iwappari Ski-jo-mae. And you can see a ton of hotels along the route, especially near Echigo-Yuzawa, which is a hub for skiing and also for going up to Hokuriku, like Kanazawa and all.

However, in the fall... it's like a ghost town! We did notice that some of the ski lifts seem to double as golf courses in the offseason, which is a good use of land, but some of them were just these big hills sitting dormant! You could see the ski lifts and these hotels and so much stuff, pretty much not being used, I think. Seems like a pretty big waste.

Koide is a very small town and the station is across the river from the main town anyway, so there is pretty much NOTHING once you get there. We had 15 minutes and I managed to buy bread rolls from a little alcohol store near the station that sold a few snacks and whatnot. We took a few photos of the Tadami line train before it left, and then we were on our way.

This is actually the train we took out from Minakami station...

Doai station in the tunnel.

The little alcohol shop by Koide station that happened to also sell snacks and some bread.

Posing with the Tadami line train.

And from the other way with the station in the background. You can see that we are already pretty far out in the middle of nowhere.

So, the next leg of the trip was 4 hours long, and the entire reason for taking this particular route...

1317 Koide
1718 Aizu-Wakamatsu

The Tadami line runs through the backwaters of Niigata and Fukushima, and actually, parts of this line LITERALLY get like 6 trains visiting each day, by which I mean 3 one way and 3 the other. Trains closer to either terminus get a few more -- there are some places where it is used for actual commuting I think, and we saw a few stations like Aizu-Bange which had a bunch of schools right near by. But yeah, some of those places in the middle, there's pretty much nothing there at all.

One station, Tagokura, is one of the highest points on the run, and it's up in the mountains near a huge power station and dam over Tagokura Lake that provides power for a whole bunch of Niigata. Tagokura station itself, though, is built inside a snow shelter cover thingy, and apparently in the winter it just closes because all the roads nearby also are closed due to snow. So if we had gone in the winter we couldn't see it. Though this time we only stopped there for 2 minutes anyway so it wasn't a huge difference, really.

There are only a few manned stations on this route at all, and the train would make longer stops at most of them; Oshirakawa, Tadami, Aizu-Kawaguchi, Aizu-Miyashita, Aizu-Bange. The other 30 or so stations are often basically a shack or whatever marking that a train stops there, and that's it.

The first part of the trip has a lot of tunnels, including one that is something like 6 kilometers long (6,539 meters. Shin had me listen for it) between Oshirakawa and Tagokura, so we were often closing the windows to reduce the sound.

There was a guy with us as part of the Niigata Tourism Bureau for the first 11 stations of the trip, from Koide to Tadami. He gave us all pamphlets about Niigata and a special "I rode the Tadami Line" ticket with the date stamped on it and all. Shin said this was a new thing, since he had ridden this line a few times and never recieved such a thing before.

Also, sadly, they used to pass tablets back and forth as a way to implement a mutex on the long single-track areas in the middle of the line, but apparently that stopped last year. Shin wanted me to see it, since I had called it a semaphore and all.

We spent the 4 hours of this trip basically looking out the window at the lovely scenery, closing the window when we got to tunnels and reopening it afterwards, taking photos out the window, running to the exits to sometimes quickly take a shot of a station we were passing through, talking a little, and then Shin fell asleep for about an hour from about Kawaguchi to Bange, maybe. I found myself dozing off towards the end but stayed awake for most of it.

Experimenting with wide-angle: the countryside.

A hill with stuff in it so that it doesn't drop rocks on the road below.

Scenery.

Going into a tunnel. (Shin was like "Put the camera strap around your arm if you're going to stick your arm out the window! OMG!")

More scenery.

Stopping for a minute or three at Oshirakawa station. Apparently the conductors used to pass tablets here to release their mutex on the track, but that doesn't happen anymore.

A pretty bridge along the way.

While in the tunnel, I notice the sign above us saying "Don't stick your head and limbs out of the train windows!" Oops. The button, btw, turns on a ceiling fan near the seat; I don't think this line has airconditioning.

Tagokura station.

We went through another short tunnel and they said we could see the lake on our right after it, which we could. It was very pretty.

A rotary used for turning around steam tunnel engines right by Tadami Station. I don't think it gets used all that much anymore.

We reached Tadami station and stopped for a few minutes too.

I needed a photo there too.

The Niigata tourism dude waves goodbye as our train goes off into the wilderness of Fukushima. Hooray.

On our way, we see things like random graveyards.

And rivers full of stones.

Here is a particularly beautiful reflective lake.

And a bridge...

Another bridge...

Aizu-Shiokawa station. Nothing here.

Aizu-Oshio station didn't even have a new station sign there.

This is Honna station's timetable. You can see that literally 3 trains per day come in on either side. Also you can see me reflected in the glass.

Leaving Honna station looks slightly like leaving train stations in suburban Philly, actually.

Another lake.

More lake.

Aizu-Kawaguchi station is the halfway point on the Tadami line, pretty much. We had a 10-minute stop there.

You can see another Tadami train coming in at the same time we got there.

More lakes and scenery here too.

The Aizu-Kawaguchi station building.

Train conductors switch trains back and forth.

Onwards... more scenery.

Cute station building at Aizu-Hinohara station.

Another cute building at Takiya station. Shin was like "Look how they built the bridge across the unneeded second track..."

Aizu-Yanaizu platform.

They have a steam train parked at Yanaizu.

Aizu-Bange station with one of the high schools in the background. A bunch of students got on the train with us here.

Taking photos of the sunset sky. See the dragon cloud following us?

I took a few pictures of the dragon cloud; I think this one came out particularly well.

Aizu-Hongo station. I thought the old man and little boy must be waiting for someone, but no, I think they just came to see the train. No joke.

The end of the line! Tadami train parked in Aizu-Wakamatsu!!

Aizu-Wakamatsu

We had a 40-minute layover there so we basically went to get dinner and wander around a little.

Station-based thing to pose with, welcome to Aizu-Wakamatsu.

The red calf "Aka-bekko" is the mascot of Fukushima, apparently.

Aizu-Wakamatsu station -- with the "celebrating Tetsudou no Hi" banner that I hadn't noticed before.

Coming back, here was an Aka-bekko-decorated train car.

1805 Aizu-Wakamatsu
1919 Koriyama

We were a bit late getting to the train and had to stand for the first half of this, but after that sat down and mostly slept through it.

1941 Koriyama
2042 Kuroiso

2050 Kuroiso
2141 Utsunomiya

2147 Utsunomiya
2327 Akabane

The rest of this was pretty straightforward; we sat on trains and rode home. It was nighttime so nothing to see outside, either.

Photopost: Riding the Tadami Line

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