Hida & Kanazawa (JP#3)

[Nick_Burman]

Hello all,

 

Cheers from Kanazawa! While we were in Toyama we did a quick run to Iwase over the Portram to visit Iwasehama where there is a street with several old houses worth seeing. However the weather screwed up our schedule (it was raining) which meant that we lost our conveyance to Takayama (one of the "Hida" expresses). Having missed the express from Toyama, we travelled by local, a JR West KiHa120 to Inotani and a JR Central KiHa48 from there onwards to Takayama. On the way at Inotani I managed to spot the pillars of the huge steel arch bridge which once brought the 1st (600mm gauge) Kamiooka Railway into the yard. Also visible is the tunnel belonging to its 1067mm successor - the junction has been torn up but there is still track inside the gallery, I believe this goes a bit farther as an access of sorts to a hydro power plant. At Hayahoshi station strings of container flats loaded with tanktainers attested to some freight activity - there is a chemical plant of some sort, I guess that JRF trips the flats from Toyama yard.

 

Spent a day and a half in Takayama sightseeing, mainly around the historical area where a number of streets still contain late Edo-era merchant's houses. Shut the modern day amenities out and one could just imagine what a merchant's life in the period could have been.

 

In Takayama we also did a (non-rail) side trip to the Hikaru Museum outside town (a 4km hike, one way) because my mother spotted an advert in town for an exhibition about prints of Mt. Fuji by artists like Hiroshige and Hokusai. The exhibition was interesting, however our pedestrian excursion did not prepare us for the shock of our lives when we saw the exhibition venue. Words aren't sufficient to describe the museum, check their pages http://h-am.jp/ to see what I mean - expecting to find an ordinary building, we found what we believe to be the most extraordinary museum we have ever seen in our lifetime...

 

Coming back from the Hikaru, I caught some rail activity - a pair of KiHa48s arriving from Inotani with a local, and another pair parked in Takayama yard; these were repainted into JNR orange and cream and, being spit and polish, looked absolutely gorgeous in the afternoon sun. At Poppo Park a 9600 and Russel Plough were nicely preserved under cover but in an very unphotogenic position. An interesting detail on the plough was a gauge-convertible truck - easily spotted due to the vast distance between wheel and axle box.

 

Today we dawdled a bit more in central Takayama, then caught a "Hida" express to Toyama. Our original plan was to proceed directly to Kanazawa by bus, but Nohi and Hokutetsu scuppered the idea for us - they changed the timetable and suppressed the 30min stop at Shirakawa-Go which would have let us have a (quick) look at the gassho-zukuri houses at the village. Without the incentive of the stop, we decided to proceed to Kanazawa by rail using our JR passes, rather than paying the (steep) 3300yen bus fare. Back at Toyama, we had a sugoi moment, as our train arrived at the station at the same moment the "Twilight Express" was pulling into town. No pictures sadly - too many bags and too little time. A DE10 also caught me with my pants down by scooting light engine through the station - we caught up with it at Takaoka, where I presume it was waiting to travel up the Johanna Line to collect a train at the paper mill located along this line. Does anyone have an idea of how much freight moves up the Hokuriku Main Line, and at what hours of the day? We followed the DE10 aboard "Thunderbird" #40, catching more glimpses of the Hokuriku Shinkansen along the way. Kanazawa station has reopened for business with an impressive station forecourt complete with massive wooden torii; very impressive indeed. Staying at the Toyoko Inn just south of the station - got a large room (! - more by luck than but design, being located in a corner of the building it has a long-ish entrance corridor) with a view over the tracks complete with a near-incessant parade of "Thunderbirds" and locals.

 

 

Cheers NB

Edited May 7, 2014 by Nick_Burman

[cteno4]

Nick,

 

sounds like you guys are having lots of fun!

 

the Hikaru museum looks quite stunning! central american with a japanese wash! central exhibit space looks quite nice. going on the list for the next trip, thanks!

 

jeff

 

ps if you enjoyed that museum, get to Bilbou to see gehry's Guggenheim, its really kicks ass. Gehry did more art than most of the later 20th century artists combined in its presentation, really is a stunning work of art.

[Nick_Burman]

Forgot to tell that living in such an uncivilized place (as far as trains are concerned) that is Brazil makes one lose the civilized custom of always popping down to the station to check if there is anything going on before starting a "normal" day. In the case of Takayama, it cost me a picture of JR Central's track geometry train, nicely laying up in the sidings. I only found it when I was aboard the "Hida" leaving the station...

 

The Hikaru was the talk of the day...we spent the whole trek back to Takayama wondering who paid for it...

 

I've just spent an hour at Kanazawa station taking pictures and sampling the action - locals, "Thunderbirds", "Shirasagis", 485s, being rush hour the procession was endless. No luck with freight - at exactly 8:45PM 2 freights thundered through in the direction of Toyama within the space of 5 minutes - 1 hour and 45minutes after I returned to the hotel.

 

Tomorrow we move to Kyoto, but mother has expressed her wish to see more of Kanazawa...so there goes Fukutetsu. I wish she would be less afraid of going out on her own, rather than depending entirely on me for guidance...

 

 

Cheers NB