11/4 - Sagano Romantic Train (aka. Torokko Train)

November 4 was a regular weekday Wednesday and we were off to the little known Sagano Romantic Train, also known as the Torokko Train in Japanese.  This particular attraction is not even listed in the Lonely Planet.  We must be onto something if the Lonely Planet doesn't know about it.  I think the reason it's not well known, to English travellers at least, is that there is very little info available in English for this attraction.  The official website is totally devoid of any English.  So if you don't read Japanese, good luck.

Our morning started with a visit to Kyoto Station.  We didn't want to be carrying all our stuff around, so we went looking for coin lockers in the bowels of Kyoto Station.  Luckily, it wasn't very hard to find them.  For ¥300, it was not a bad deal in exchange for lightening our load.

Then we went back up to the JR platforms in search of our JR train towards Umahori [馬堀] in the northwest sector outside the main town.  Luckily, we got some breakfast at the local Lawson (a popular convenience store).  I got a onigiri (rice packed together in a triangle and wrapped in dried seaweed), while N bought a whole bowl of hot oden (a winter dish with a variety of ingredients in a soy-sauce flavoured broth).  On the train, we were about to eat the oden, but once you took off the lid of the bowl, the fragrant aroma of hot food permeated the whole cabin.  I think in Japan, it's highly frowned upon to eat on the train.  So the oden would have been way too obvious that we were sneaking a bite to eat.  So we quietly munched on our onigiri instead.

We alighted the train about 20 minutes later at the JR Umahori []station and walked to the Torokko Kameoka [トロッコ亀岡] Station (the leftmost station on the orange line on the map presented).  It was only a 10 minute walk and the air was fresh in this very rural part of Kyoto.  We were very early for the next ride.  The station wasn't bursting with tourists yet.  There was your standard gift store attached to the station and thankfully, washrooms.

We washed up and finished off our breakfast.  I was really starving at this point.  I was very happy to have food in my stomach at this point.  The oden was still pretty hot, so that was a bonus.  We were about 30 minutes early, so we just took our time.  However, as I looked out the window, I could see a tour bus pulling up.  Our solitude was not long lived.  It was a Taiwanese tour group that suddenly flooded the station within minutes.  I was hearing Taiwanese and Mandarin left, right, and centre.

Luckily, N had already purchased our tickets for the ride.  She already knew beforehand that Car No. 5 on the Torokko train is the best car to be on.  Why?  Well, because it is the open air car with no glass getting in the way of your view of the Hozu River and the rest of the scenery.  She had read all about it in her Kansai Travel Book from Sky Publishing of Hong Kong.  Eat your heart out, Lonely Planet.

Pretty soon, the train came into the station.  One group got off the train and we got on.  We were greeted by a masked ojisan - a mascot of some sort.  I think I'll call him our onboard entertainment.  Not a very pretty face, but he was there to mingle with the passengers.   He even joked around with a group of young Japanese schoolgirls and took a group photo with them.

The entire Romantic Train ride was about 25 minutes through some breathtaking scenery.  Unfortunately, the red leaves were not out in full force.  I guess the autumn had been pretty warm up to this point.  However, the view of the Hozu River below was very enjoyable and relaxing.  When you think of Japan, you often think of giant metropolises towering over the land.  It's nice to enjoy the nature side of Japan for once.  Even our little Miga got to take in the scenery.

 

 

 

Some people who take the Torokko train in the opposite direction from Arashiyama to Kameoka will take the Hozu-gawa River Boat ride back to Arashiyama.  N said we had time to do it, but I think 2 hours on the boat ride would have taken away our time from doing other things in the Kyoto area.  From the train, we could see a few boats in the river below.  It looks fun, but I think 2 hours was too long.

We got off at the Torokko Arashiyama [トロッコ嵐山] Station with most of the tourists.  The train was a nice way to start off our 2nd day in Kyoto.  A totally different change of pace from urban Japan.  Luckily, it was not busy season for the train.  The cherry blossom, or sakura, season in the spring would likely be the busiest time for the train.

The Arashiyama Torokko Station put us right at the entrance of the bamboo forest and within walking distance of Tenryu-ji [天龍寺]