The Hakutaka dropped us at Uozu, and while I wasn't keen on an up the staircase and across the bridge and lump the Monster back down the other side to access the private line, Madam scoped out an elevator on the JR side though there was no escaping the old heave ho as we climbed the stairs to access the local line. Being a local line we were up for the fare as well, since the JR Rail Pass wasn't valid on this section.
The sight of the train that eventually rolled into Uozu didn’t do much to inspire confidence, and from the look of the trains that passed in the other direction it definitely seemed we’d paid our dosh to a company whose rolling stock comprised whatever weatherbeaten items they'd managed to spare from the scrap heap. There wasn’t any sign of a standard livery pattern, for example, and you’d be inclined to think most of the rolling stock wasn’t far off its last legs.
Or, in such cases, I guess, its last wheels.
But although they mightn't look all that flash, at least they work and we arrived at the onsen at Unazuki Spring late in the afternoon, with Madam enthused about the hot bath experience and Hughesy grateful for anything that would further reduce the pain (although the worst had, admittedly, subsided).
Developed after 1923 as an off-shoot of the hydroelectric projects that brought people into the previously inaccessible mountain region along the Kurobe Valley in northeastern Toyama prefecture. Unazaki is rated as one of the purest hot springs in Japan.
It’s at the entrance to the Kurobe Gorge, and marks one end of the sightseeing train route that runs through a deep V-shaped valley to Keyakidaira. The Hot Springs are, however, the main attraction, drawing their water from Kuronagi-onsen, located upstream on a tributary of the Kurobe River, where three thousand tons of water per day gushes out of the ground at temperatures around 91°C. It cools down a little over the seven kilometre journey to Unazuki-onsen but is still 60°C when it reaches the two metre fountain in front of the station at Unazuki. The waters are said to be effective in treating rheumatism and neuralgia, sports injuries, and nervous disorders.
Today, it’s a fairly up to date hot spring resort full of ryokans and modern hotels, including the one we were patronising which trades under the name of Feel Unazuki and offers the interesting combination of Japanese-style rooms (complete with tatami matting), flat-screen TV and free Wi-Fi.