Showing posts sorted by relevance for query gono]. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query gono]. Sort by date Show all posts

Friday, 2 September 2011

Gono line、五能線

The Gono line which traces the coastline from Higashi Noshiro in Akita to Kuwabe, just north of Hirosaki in Aomori, has been a poster pin up for JR East for the last several years as both a seishun 18  destination as well as being home to the Shirakami Resort Liner train.  The Shirakami Resort liner takes its name from the World Heritage Shirakami beech forest on the inland side of the train line.  It's a bit ironic since the sales point of the Gono line is the view of the ocean which has  people looking in the opposite direction to Shirakami... but nevermind.  It's been on my "to do" list for a long time.

I took the opportunity while up there to take a trip on it with Hiro's parents.  Local (non resort liner) trains are painfully infrequent along the Gono line.  I think there are two that go the length of it each day - one in the early morning and one in the late afternoon. (4 if you count both directions).  We took the 6.24am train from Odate to Higashi Noshiro to catch the morning one.  We opted to take the first train from Higashi Noshiro which terminated at Noshiro and wait for the through train there.


Gono line: Noshiro 五能線、秋田県、能代市


We stopped briefly in Noshiro before taking the through train further north.
The rustic looking Gono line train

Noshiro man hole covers

Storm water drain cover in Noshiro

The main street looks rather forlorn, but given that it's 7am
it's not a fair assessment.

Once upon a a time Noshiro was a thriving industrial port city.
With the mines closed, the timber industry lagging and much less
need for it as a port, it's seen better days.  It was too early to
see if we could dine at the House of Kaneyu, but it remains an impressive building.


The House of Kaneyu.

Up the coast

And a bit further

Vegetables and rice meet the sea along the Japan Sea Coast.

Wednesday, 11 May 2011

The road less travelled - the hata hata kan

The Hata Hata kan
After a busy morning of local sightseeing, Hiro's parent's decided to go to the hatahata kan.  Hata hata is an a specialty fish of Akita.   When Hiro was a child they used to buy hata hata in wooden boxes - the returnable box cost more than the fish...  After years of overfishing a moratorium was placed on catching them and the numbers have returned to a more sustainable level.  Hiro and I assumed the hata hata kan was a local museum dedicated to the story of the hata hata.

It was not.
The hata hata kan is an onsen directly opposite the Akita-Shirakami railway station on the Gono railway line.  The baths look out onto the Japan Sea. We went to the tatami room after the onsen and by chance came across some mountain climbing friends of Hiro's parents.  The tatami room was a big room with lots of low tables and zabuton cushions for sitting on. There seem to be no shyness about lying down and sleeping on the floor, the beer vending machines outside no doubt ensured peaceful slumber.  Hiro was tempted but in the end apprehension that he might snore won out...
Entry to the day onsen was 400Y/ adult - very cheap by Kanto standards, on the expensive side for Odate though.
Just as an aside, Hiro's father was saying that this area was washed out by a major tsunami about 1000 years ago... there is no chance of the Gono trainline surviving a major tsunami...
The railway station across the road from the Hata hata kan


The Japan sea, from next to the hata hata kan

The Japan Sea coast looking down to Noshiro

the goro goro - rest relax and recuperate tatami mat room.
I felt too conspicuous to take a photo in the room - lots of people
were lying on the zabuton cushions sleeping.  It goes with the
at typical frame of mind that people are in when they go to an onsen.

The hata hata kan from the front - because there are outdoor onsen
(rotenburo) the privacy wall blocking it off from spectators
extends to almost the cliff.

The road back - unusually straight.

Saturday, 16 May 2015

Shirakami, the unexplored Akita side. Buna no Mori Koen

At Teihazaka there was a sign for Buna no Mori Koen a few kilometres down the road.  Since we'd already come an hour to Tehaizaka, it seemed a pity to miss the opportunity to see what was at the "Beech Tree park".  According to the welcome sigh it was opened in in Heisei 9 (1997) when Shirakami Sanchi was registered as a UNESCO Natural World Heritage sight.  It was so pretty, and for Honshu, so remote. 
In Akita I am often dismayed about how little nouse the prefecture displays in showcasing itself. It's like a black hole on a tourist map.  Bunanomori koen doesn't even appear on Google maps. Despite being relatively close to the JR Gono line there is no public transport here.  Even local people don't know about it... Hiro's parents who are avid mountain climbers and mountain vegetable gatherers and read the local and national newspapers every day had no idea of it.  They were amazed at how beautiful it was.  

We drove as far as possible and then walked a few kilometres to a hut which had public toilets and an office for a park attendant, though there was none there. It was stunning path, lines with waterfalls, that traced the Mizusawa, a moutain stream that rises in the Shirakami and flows a short distance out into the Japan Sea.  From the hut there were walking courses into the mountains, but they were not particularly signposted and there was no attendant. Maybe the situation is different when the road is fully clear and cars can go through the whole way to the attendant's office.   Since we'd walked several kms to attendants hut, and we hadn't brought lunch, we didn't look for mountain paths.  Perhaps summer will give the opportunity to do so.

If anyone out in cyberland wants to start an eco retreat centre.  This is an area worth investigating (though it's inaccessible 4 months of the year with snow).

A welcome sign for the park which is 7 km down the road,
above Maezawa dam.
The road to Buna no Mor Koen.
There's not a lot of traffic there - keep in mind it was
at Golden Week one of Japan's biggest holiday seasons.
We  saw a couple of cars pulled up for fishing or mountain vegetable picking.
But that was it. No sightseers at all.



We walked upstream from here

The melting snow in the mountains meant high volumes of water in the Mizusawa River.

On the road near the bridge a backhoe, which had been used to
clear the road / pathway was  positioned to block the road.

Signs of spring

So pretty

Just as well the backhoe was blocking the road.
It wouldn't be a good spot for a U-turn.

Kogomi mountain vegetable


Spot the frog
A  bit easier in this one

A non edible mountain vegetable

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Bits of snow still remaining

Looking down from the attendant's hut area.

A sign for a walking course.

The Mizusawa River

Shirakami map

At the attendants's hut.  The posts don't do much for the view

Waterfall

The sign to say that it's the Buna no Mori Koen...
In a country looking for places for the 20 million target tourists to go,
this area has potential, if anyone had the willingness to do market
research and invest.  My feeling in Japan is that a lot of investment takes
place without the scantest regard for what is actually needed.

There were many waterfalls.

We took our shoes off to walk through.
The water could only have been a few degrees
above freezing.

The Misuzawa

The park is above the Maezawa dam.
A dam whose merit is hard to see.
Other than for the construction companies who
built it.

The area

Friday, 2 September 2011

Gono line: to Goshogawara and home. 五能線、青森県、五所川原

From Fukaura we opted to pay the 500 yen reservation fee and use Shirakami Resort liner - which runs three times a day - to go to Goshogawara.  There is a standing nebuta museum there which Hiro's parents wanted to show me. The highlight of the building was the view from the top floor - Mount Iwaki was being uncharacteristically agreeable and was not hidden by clouds. Most times I have been to Hirosaki I've not been able to see it, even though it's on the outskirts of the town.

We took a regular train back from Goshogawara to Hirosaki and changed for a train to Odate.  A loooong day but very scenic.    For anyone using seishun 18, unless you want to go straight through without stopping, it may not be worth using a day's pass.  At any rate, study the timetable carefully!

Gono line: Fukaura's beautiful coast line.


Gono line: Fukaura 五能線、青森県、深浦


We stopped at Fukaura mostly for the temple - Engakuji - that is there.  Hiro's mother was keen to visit it.  The town is also home to an impressive art gallery - the gallery itself though is considerably more impressive than the contents.  It's more aptly described as a folk museum with some pictures.  The 300 yen entry fee per person is unlikely to come close to covering the wages of the people who work there.  The rock formations off the coast here were beautiful and made it a very worthwhile place to stop off.

There was no train till after five in the afternoon so we opted to pay a seat reservation fee and take the Shirakami resort  liner.
Fukaura main street

Engaku-ji, Fukaura
This temple apparently has something to do with good luck for your hair.
Perhaps to Hiro's mother's disappointment I wasn't very interested in
paying to have my hair blessed...so I didn't learn much about it...


It's quite unusual to see Sanskrit so prominently
featured in a temple.
Sanskrit (I presume) carvings on rocks is also unusual.
There wasn't anyone about to ask what the meaning of them is.
This tree is huge. Many hundreds of years old. It's a focal point
of the temple festival - a practice that would have its origins in Shinto
rather than Buddhism.




The town art gallery - an impressive concrete buidling - they must have
a local member with very good connections. It's hard to imagine
the town generating funds to pay the staff let alone the upkeep.

Inside the art gallery  - a display of Japanese farm goods from the not
so distant past.
Tanaka's ryokan - there IS somewhere to stay in Fukaura... information
on accommodation is in short supply and almost non existent in English.

We had a delicious lunch here.  It was one of the few options for eating.
There is not a lot of eating out happening here I suspect.
Hiro's mother was talking to a local lady that we walked passed on our
way to the temple and asked her where we could eat.  She said
she didn't know she hadn't tried any of them. Fair enough.
If I only I had the stamina to cook every meal every day....

Delicious shoga yaki set lunch.