The run towards Sendai proved simultaneously easy on the eye and mildly disturbing, largely due to the amount of greenery across to the horizon. We'd headed across this time with hopes of sighting hillsides full of autumnal colouring, but apart from the odd russet patch here and there the foliage, on the southern side of Sendai, at least, remained a deep green that was, as suggested, rather pleasing as a vista but wasn't what we were there for.
Still, we weren't all that far into the Deep North Perhaps things would be more promising as the latitudes rose and altitude kicked in.
A red signal (or something) brought us to an unscheduled stop at Fukushima, where there was no sign of the nuclear power facility that attracted so much attention in the aftermath of last year's tsunami, largely, I guess due to the mountain range that lies between the city and the coast. That isn't the case at Sendai, where we were due to change trains.
The Shinkansen was around five minutes late coming in to Sendai, and our slower up country train was due to leave five minutes after the scheduled arrival time of the Shinkansen, but it was waiting on the other side of the platform when we arrived, and we managed the switch without difficulty.
The up country train doesn't use the same tracks as its more sophisticated sibling, and from the time we pulled out of Sendai, that was rather obvious. Not to suggest we're talking the old clickety clack of the Queensland rattler, but we moved into the gathering dusk at a noticeably slower speed with much more frequent stops.
The first of those was at Furukawa, but not far past there we were into a fairly solid wall of forest, at least on the left hand side of the train, which is where we found ourselves this time around. I may well be wrong about the forest, but as we rattled along at a fair old sub-Shinkansen clip there weren't too many lights out there until we started to slow down for the stop at Kurikoma-Kogan.
While we were pulled up there a passing Shinkansen reminded us of the pecking order. Madam remarked that we must be starting to climb, and we were probably moving into colored leaves territory. Given the fact it was now totally dark outside there was no way to verify the notion but I hoped she was right.
The carriage hadn't exactly been crowded when we boarded, but there was a steady flow of departures that continued at Ichinoseki, And again at Kanegasaki so that by the time we reached Kitakami there was practically no one left and most of us chickens alighted there.
A check on the ubiquitous Google won’t give you that much on Kitakami, but in any case we weren’t necessarily there for tourist attractions or sightseeing. Madam and Our Host go back far enough to warrant a visit when we’re there, so it’s a matter of catching up and conversing after an evening arrival, with the option of taking a squiz at the sights the next day.
Located around the confluence of the Kitakami and Waga Rivers in Iwate Prefecture, Kitakami (population around 95,000) sits on the Tōhoku Shinkansen and the Tōhoku Main Line, both operated by JR East, connecting Tokyo and Aomori Prefecture which makes it a convenient and reasonably accessible resting spot for people looking to catch up with old friends. It's about three hours north of Tokyo on Nasuno/Hikari, the slowest of the three versions of the Shinkansen, which delivers a fair indication of the population pecking order where the bullet trains are concerned. The trip will set you back around 12,500 yen (a tad over $A145), which underlines the value of the JR Pass (7 days $335.00; 14 days $535.00)
The fastest version, the Nozomi, only stop at the major centres like Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, hurtling between destinations at maximum speed, a now you see it, now you don't proposition when you're standing on the platform at one of the lesser stations. Japan RailPass holders don't get to ride on those, but that's understandable given the premium service and the demand for seats.
Below that there's a variety of fast and semi-fast versions, depending on the actual line you're taking, including the Hikari and Sakura (Tokaido, Sanyo, Kyushu), the Hayate and Yamabiko (Tōhoku) that stop more often, but bypass smaller centres. Kitakami, with a population that's heading towards a hundred thousand, still isn't big enough to warrant being included on those services.
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