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Published: January 17th 2016
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Unfortunately, it was rather cloudy and started showering in Ichinoseki in the morning, while we were walking to the station. We headed to the platform for Kesennuma line. As planned, we caught the 9:10 train for Kesennuma.
There were quite a few people getting off at Geibikei. My mother quietly said, ‘Where are these people going in the rain?’ I smiled and said, ‘Of course, they are all going to Geibikei – like us, they are getting on the boat along the gorge this morning.’ We bought the tickets and left our big pieces of luggage at the ticketing office. Despite the rain, a large number of crowds came and joined a queue for the boat ride. We ensured to stay together so that we would get on the same boat. As it was raining, a plastic-roof-cover was attached on each of the wooden boats to protect passengers from rain.
As our turn came, we walked onto the boat. We were asked to take off shoes and sit on the zabuton (cushion) placed on the sides of the boat. Passengers were able to drink and eat snacks; there were a couple of people
who joined the ride and were selling drinks and food. Approximately 30 passengers were on our boat. Once the boat became full, a designated rower started steering.
Owing to the plastic-roof cover, we didn’t get wet and managed to see the lush hillside where many trees had autumn coloured leaves and trees growing on the limestone rocks along the gorge. There was dense fog around the river in the morning on 11 October, but the fog made the scenery of the gorge mysterious and even more beautiful, with colours of leaves reflected in the river.
Looking at the river from the narrow space between the roof cover and the boat, we could see countless number of small fish. The water on the Satetsugawa River, the branch river of Kitakamigawa River – one of the longest rivers in the Tohoku district, was so clear and transparent that we could see the riverbed. The rower acted as a guide, and explained to us that salmon, as well as other fish, would travel up to Satetsugawa River in October. Although I hardly feed animals at the holiday destinations, the scene of a shoal of fish in the
clear water made me interested in feeding the shoal, I fed the fish with other passengers.
The boat disembarked at the shore near the bridge. The guide told us that we had now arrived at Miyoshigaoka, and were able to ramble around the gorge by following the walking course via the footbridge, and asked us to return to the boat in half an hour’s time. We walked to the viewpoint for the big rugged rocks, Sentaigan and Daigeibigan, and took photos of rugged limestone cliffs with varied features containing various shapes of trees and the landscape which was similar to the mountain-and-river paintings in China.
Except from a couple of young people, most of the passengers returned to the boat on time. While steering from Miyoshigaoka shore to the main harbour, the guide sang a couple of the folk songs of Geibikei gorge – one of Japan’s hundred beauties. Despite the rain, we enjoyed a 90-minute boat ride, with views of autumn-coloured leaves and rugged limestone cliff with varied features along the gorge and a shoal of fish swimming in the clear river.
It kept raining during
the lunch time. We left our big pieces of luggage at the souvenir shop on the ground floor, and we had lunch at the rest house. Mark had unajū – soy sauce and rice wine flavoured eel was served on the rice, and this dish was served in jūbako – wooden square-shaped container. My parents and I had soba noodles – the regional meal of southern Iwate prefecture.
There were a number of attractive sweets and biscuits in the souvenir shop. I bought packets of sweets for my work colleagues.
In front of the rest house, we found the statue of Geigan Sato who was the pioneer of Geibikei. With his father, he invested to the project of making the remote inland gorge area into the sightseeing place at the beginning of the 20
th century.
As we had the time for the train for Kesennuma, we popped in the Higashiyama washi (Japanese homemade paper) shop. We saw various stationery items – colourful and decorative origami papers, postcards and envelopes with floral patterns, and homemade small bags.
Geibikei station was an unmanned station, but we were able to check the updated information about trains running to Ichinoseki and Kesennuma on the Ofunato Line by the electronic display. The train for Kesennuma came and departed at Geibikei at 13:18 and brought us to Kesennuma at 14:09. As for 2015, Ofunato line’s terminal station was Kesennuma – the line towards Ofunato via Rikuzentakata has been replaced with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line. Also, Kesennuma line, which used to run from Kesennuma station, has become the BRT line.
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