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Published: November 15th 2015
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Trip with Sanriku Railway We had initially planned riding on the sightseeing boat on 8 October. However, my mother made a suggestion that if we were to travel to Kuji, north edge of North Rias Line, it would be best to travel without carrying large pieces of luggage. Thus, we changed our plan: we would travel with North Rias Line and stroll around Kuji on 8 October.
By morning, the gusty wind had eased off, but it was still rough in the sea. The receptionists had gathered and provided necessary information for tourists all the time. They told us that the sightseeing boats for 8 October were still pending but there hadn’t been any outstanding news of Sanriku Railway, which meant that the train would be running as scheduled. At 8:50, we got on the shuttle bus and arrived at the station just after 9 o’clock.
Sanriku Railway isn’t run by Japan Railway or private railway; it is financed and operated by the third sector – the public–private partnership. Running in the Sanriku district, northeast coast of Japan, the railway staff offer a wide variety of services – increased selections of souvenirs for tourists.
There was a
lot of damage on the railway trucks and stations along both North and South Rias line by the tsunami on 11
th March 2011. However, Sanriku Railway’s manager demonstrated strong determination despite the adversity; after looking into destruction on the line and stations and seeing local people walking on the track, he understood that it would be necessary to run the train for the local people, and told his staff that they would let the train run wherever they felt safe to run and re-open the entire line within three years’ time. With his determination and receiving a lot of people’s support, by spring in 2014, both North and South Rias lines fully resumed their services. Having learned this news, we planned travelling with the Sanriku Railway to commemorate its restoration and support its ongoing business while we were in Miyako.
Sanriku Railway’s Miyako station was next to the JR’s one. We bought our tickets. While we were buying the return tickets, we were offered one-day tickets as the fare would be the same. As scheduled, the train departed at Miyako at 9:18.
Sanriku Railway’s route was carefully planned, providing excellent protection against the worst effects of the tsunami.
Constructors dug tunnels, built the stations on the mountain side, and laid the railway tracks on top of earth banks and viaducts. I heard that there weren’t very many cases of damage caused by the earthquake on 11 March 2011 along the North Rias line: the staff decided to re-open the services wherever they felt safe to run.
Most of the time, the train was running through tunnels; the only time we could see the sea was when stopping at stations, running through the track by the coast between Noda-Tamagawa and Rikuchu-Noda where we could see a wide area of open land and a few remaining pine trees and going through Osawa Railway Bridge and Akkagawa Railway Bridge, both of which were viaducts erected facing to the Pacific.
The train brought us to Kuji, final terminal, at 11:02. We took photos of the train, which we had travelled in from Miyako and the retro train, which runs on special occasions. We walked over the station’s pedestrian bridge. We found photos of Shimanokoshi station – before the disasters: the train was running on the concrete viaduct along the peaceful village; photos taken just after the disasters: the total destruction
of the concrete viaduct, station building and its surrounding residential area; photos of reconstruction works; and photos of the newly constructed station.
Sanriku Railway (Kuji–Miyako) Unfortunately, I seemed to have lost a day-ticket; I bought a single ticket to Miyako at Kuji. The train departed at 2:10. Having seen people carrying cameras, the river run the train slowly when going through Akkagawa and Osawa railway bridge where passengers can overlook the sea and dramatic coastline, and talked about Horinai station, which was used for the Amachan, NHK’s TV drama; Noda village, which has been home for natural salt and its economy has thrived with because of the salt; Abalone’s breeding farm at the estuary of Akkagawa river and Shimanokoshi station and its concrete railway bridge, which were washed away. It seemed the typhoon was going through Sanriku coast on 8 October: the sea was rough and a series of high waves were coming to the piers. We arrived at Miyako at 3:47.
Sanriku Railway’s souvenir shop We arrived at Sanriku Railway’s station at 12:30. As we had time before the train’s departure, we looked at the souvenir shelves.
I found packets and boxes of Santetsu* Akaji (red line) Senbei (rice crackers), which was written in the novel of Kiyoshi Shigematsu’s novel, ‘Map of Hope’. There were a number of books and photographs books which tell how Sanriku Railway has been restored and the staff have resumed the services. I also found the cartoon book, and showed Mark illustrated scenes – people walking on the track, Tanohata village office workers, who were clearing up debris, talking to the Santetsu’s staff around Shimanokoshi station and asking them when they would run the train, local people waving to the driver who was running the trial train. Although the train company has been suffering from a deficit over the years, the local people have relied on its service for commuting. In fact, there were several people riding on the train, which departed from Miyako at 13:15.
*abbreviation of Sanriku Tetsudo (railway)
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