From Mountains to the Sea

Looking at the options for what to do around and where to go from Matsumoto we settled on heading north towards the Sea of Japan. Rosemary also wanted to visit one of Matsumoto's attractions, a Timepiece Museum which fortunately turned out to be just down the road. Our hotel faces onto a plaza made of attractive stonework and is only a few blocks from both the station and this museum. Breakfast was the usual melée in the lobby and I noticed as we have travelled to more remote locations the western style breakfast options have diminished and, now, disappeared entirely. Breakfast is triangles of nigiri sushi, pickles, miso, shredded cabbage, unidentifiable stewed vegetables(?), and potato salad which seems very popular. There was also a bowl of sliced pineapple which occasioned a rare unguarded moment when the lady filling it accidentally fired a piece across the table and laughed raucously with self-amusement and was completely unapologetic as she fetched it and placed it in the bowl. Quite refreshing (no, not the pineapple, the incident). 

Again we avoided the efficient route and chose a local train that, with a stopover of just under two hours, would take us to the coast and a town called Itoigawa which is famous for, well, nothing it would seem, other than being at the end of this train line. The risk with blindly choosing a route in this part of the country is that it is possible it is just a succession of tunnels and so all you can see is the reflection of your disappointed face as you truck along under and through the scenery. (Note to Auckland: get over yourself. Tunnels much longer than an inner city rail crossing or harbour crossing are common and frequent here in country much more vulnerable to natural disasters such as earthquakes). 

In the end, our choice turned out to be a lucky one. The two carriage train travelled right up the middle of the snow country where the Tokyoites come to ski, hike, climb and, most importantly, soak in hot pools after sumptuous meals. There are direct trains  from Shinjuku station in Tokyo to Matsumoto and our little train passed through country with spectacular alpine scenery including some very steep and high mountains still carrying remnants of snow from the winter. The snow fall is clearly heavy here as all the houses have steepish roofs with rails and ridges fitted to stop an avalanche of roof snow descending on you as you head off to the dairy to get a packet of tofu. 

There were also a couple of quite beautiful lakes with boats for hire and little chalets and the like. There were ski fields visible as great cleared paths down the mountains through the forest, with chair lifts, and snow plows in evidence at their bases (was that an Oxford comma?). As the train emptied out we moved a few times to improve out seating and also the conductor abandoned ship so it was just the driver left. He would take the fares at each stop as people got off, just like a bus driver. 

Even though we were towards the back of the carriage I could still hear the driver talking through his routine. The JR train driving system involves a series of pointing hand gestures accompanied with intoned statements which I presume are along the lines of 'doors clear, doors close, brakes off, time check correct, lights green, track clear etc etc' with each item being pointed to with a white gloved hand. 

Waiting for our next local train at Minami-Otari we took a brief walk to find nothing there but the road that follows the train line and so stopped at the only shop next to the station and purchased some food and drink which we consumed in the waiting room that was half chairs and little tables and half tatami mats which I took advantage of to have a very pleasant little sit, using the images of the Daibutsu in Nara and the Bosatsu in Kyoto with good effect. 

The waiting room at Minami-Otari 

Typical playground - a little dismal

The next train was a single carriage that took us through many tunnels as we burrowed through the mountains that come right down to the edge of the Sea of Japan in this part of the country. Arriving at Itoigawa our tourist info routine resulted in a new and pleasant hotel just across the road from the station, the Geopark Hotel.