Saturday, 3 November 2012
The hot spring onsen experience might be one of the major draw cards to the area, but there's no doubt that most of the visitors are there, at least partly, to ride the rather wonderful little railway that runs out of Unazuki Springs.
Operating from mid-April to November every year, the Kurobe Torokko Electric Railway was originally used to carry workers to the construction sites for the hydroelectric dams in the Gorge. It’s just over twenty kilometres from Unazuki to the terminus at Keyakidaira and the trip takes around eighty minutes each way.
Along the way the railway passes through the steepest V-shaped gorge in Japan, crossing twenty-one bridges and snaking through forty-one tunnels, passing a number of hot springs, including Kuronagi and Kanetsuri, and around the terminus at Keyakidaira there are a number of scenic options including the Sarutobi Ravine and the Man-eating Rock and Meiken Hot Spring.
That, however, is getting ahead of the developing narrative.
We'd bunked down rather early the night before, with Hughesy claiming major fatigue as a major contributory factor to Friday morning's condition, and I was definitely a candidate for a big night on the futon and under the doona. I reckon there was a good eleven hours between when I drifted off and when I emerged from a deep and restful slumber, though I wasn't looking forward to what I was likely to find when daylight arrived.
This, I'd been warned, was the day when the entire array of warm clothing would be called into play, since the absolute best scenario involved a maximum of around 10 at Unazuki some time in the early afternoon and a temperature that would probably be in the low positive range when we hit the train and made our way up into the mountains.
Breakfast was another take on the Viking, though it featured almost nothing recognizable to the Western eye apart from the pastry and coffee options, but I managed a hearty enough start that fueled the day's activities and got me to dinner time without the need for further nutrition.