The Locomotives Running in the Highlands
Contents:
Rice planting areas, pastoral scenery, the inside of a wooden passenger train.
The scenes depicted in the photos which I have collected here were a part of daily life not such a long time ago.
I feel a bit nostalgic when I look at them now.
The title photograph shows a horse-breeding farm of Hokkaido.
(June, 1973)
The scenery along the Koumi line is very beautiful.
At one time, a C56 type locomotive pulled a special passenger train full of hikers in the highlands during the picnic season, which begins in early Spring and lasts to the end of Summer.
On another day this locomotive hauled only cars loaded with vegetables.
The steam locomotives like passengers and freight equally well.
(click on each image for an enlargement)
I played a little trick in this photograph, using a filter to give a feeling of a moonlit night.
I once thought that the lotus root was only grown in swampy fields.
Now I know better.
But, the lotus root can also be cultivated in a vegetable field, and also in a rice field, did you know that?
Apples are grown in the northern part of Japan.
I arrived in this apple orchard before daybreak.
My feet got soaked from the dew which had formed in the grass during the night, and I was chilled to the bone.
The day I visited Amarube it was cold, and a light rain was falling.
I got off at the Amarube station and walked down a spiraling road and eventually came right under the Amarube railroad bridge .
I looked up at the Amarube railroad bridge [height 41m, length 308m], just as you see it in the photo.
The fields were all prepared for rice planting, and it was time to look around, and say, "Well, let's get it planted."
You might be surprised to find such mountainous scenery as appears in this photograph in Japan.
It is not a rare scene in Japan.
Actually it is very common.
A C56 type locomotive is shown in this beautiful scene.
The mountain in the background is Mt. Yatugatake.
It is restful and peaceful for the spirit.
This car has fixed-back wooden seats, straight up 90 degrees.
There was the familiar smell of coal smoke, and the overhead racks with netting.
Until this photograph was taken, I had forgotten what the inside of an old passenger train looked and smelled like.
What did this ox cart carry?
Such a cart was a very common sight to see in Japan in 1969.
In this photo you can see a locomotive in between the feet of the ox and those of the farmer driving the cattle.
The platform of the Kabuto station is very long.
The waiting area is completely exposed in the middle of the platform.
One passenger is surprised by the unexpected snow and wishes he had a coat.
BbrrrrrrhH!!!!!
I t makes me shiver to look.
Highland Trains
A Field of Lotus Root
Daybreak in the Apple Orchard
Rice Planting Time
Switzerland? No, it is Shinshu
Have a Wooden Seat
A Cattle Cart on the Crossing
A Special Product
It Is Cold!!
osaka@slnet.gr.jp
