Kanazawa to Amanohashidate

Sunday's travels

We had a three-hour drive this morning so thought I'd devote some blog space to highway travel in this part of Japan.

Taken from the highway, the size of  these rice fields is normal now. When I first came to Japan 58 years ago, the fields were much smaller, the size one family could work by hand. Now, with mechanization, and as families die out or move,the paddies are being consolidated into larger fields that benefit from the use of machinery.

Over the years, Japan has transitioned to prestressed concrete poles. I suppose someday the
American companies will make the switch also.

Chiaki-san, our guide, said there are 64 tunnels between Wajima and Amano Hashidate, and I believe her. The longest was 6.6 miles and there were several nearly as long. Most of the tunnels have long curves and elevation gain and losses, I suppose to break the monotony and make driving safer. All the longer ones had emergency escape doors every so often and well lighted signs directing people to emergency routes.

Rest stops have restrooms, of course, and also service stations, but also have stores selling souvenirs and cafes with various kinds of relatively fast food.

Typical long haul truck taking a break. Both sets of front wheels turn. We also saw plenty of trucks hauling containers.

Pre-wrapped souvenirs. Each rest stop has souvenirs unique to that particular locality as well as the more generalized ones.

This part of the rest stop has snacks and drinks.

Vending machines with hot (red highlights) and cold (blue highlights) drinks. Some vending machines in the towns still dispense beer and sake.

We stopped in the lower portion of this rest stop. The upper area contained the service station and sit-down
restaurants, in addition to the snack, drinks and souvenir areas such as the ones in the lower area.

Bread and pastry section. The large white letters say, "melon pan" which is melon flavored soft bread similar to Hawaiian sweet bread. The red and white sign on the left says the "regi" is closed. Japanese are great for picking up words from foreign languages. In this case "regi" is the word for register.

Quick food area of the rest stop.

Garbage and recycle area has (from left) bins for papers & magazines, plastics and vinyl, cans, container for unfinished drinks to be emptied, PET bottles, trash, trash and glass. 

We stopped at Nishimaizuru for a change of transportation and to stretch our legs. The special train Akamatsu took us to a station near Amanohashidate where we hopped back on our bus for the last leg to the hotel and sightseeing around Amanohashidate.

This clock tower in the station courtyard was surrounded with maples in fall colors.

While waiting to enter the train, I walked down a side road and saw this old granite fence.

The Akamatsu (red pine) tourist train.

Our attendants were sporting Halloween colors too.

This train is a refurbished old timer. These controls were common on the old trains.
Power on the left and air brakes on the right.