Nice write up. The closing of the rail line is another symptom of the demographic crash of the rural areas of Japan. In our area, some of the empty homes are available to stay in over night of a few days. We have done this several times prior to the panic. It is a bit strange staying in someone else’s home with they not being there nor even meeting them. The homes are fully furnished, with family photos on the walls. The owners are generally elderly and in the hospital for extended times and the adult kids away for work. Local retirees too over a restaurant that closed down and serve home style cooking made of local produce and fish for reasonable prices. Locals took us out to collect various edible wild plants including takenoko. On one Spring trip we planted satoimo and in the Fall we went back to help harvest it. This was organized and operated by the community as a way to keep vacant homes lived in at least on a part time basis and bring in some income. Is there similar around the Gonokawa area? I ask that not even knowing the fate of the program I am writing about here as I doubt they operated it during the years of the panic. I cannot image elderly country folk inviting anyone for the Tokyo area in to their community and homes when governors “recommended” no one cross prefectural borders.
I think the closing of the rail lines is more due to the improvement of the roads.
When I first visited the Gonokawa area 25ish years ago the road from Miyoshi to Gotsu was horrible. Even though most of it was technically a national road (kokudo) the actual roads where windy and narrow with limited spots where you could let traffic going the other way pass. Now there is exactly one spot where you need to wait and there's a tunnel that has been built that will allow that spot to be skipped once they fix a bridge. When the road was that slow and inconvenient it made sense to take the train because the train was faster. Now it isn't so it doesn't.
I forgot that you are in a rare booming area. The headline below gives a glimpse of what most of the rest of the country is experiencing.
Over 40% of Japan's municipalities at risk of vanishing, study finds
The Japan Times Apr 24, 2024
I have been reading articles on services in rural areas being reduced or cut due to lack of passengers for years now. It has been cited among the reasons for the elderly relocating to Tokyo or other urban areas and the resultant empty house problem. In the early days of the panic, I read that 14% of stand alone houses in the country are vacant. After meeting a new coworker a couple of weeks ago, they emailed me to offer a free farm house in Saitama. All I would be required to pay for is utilities and upkeep. If I were not able to accept, they asked if I knew anyone who could, so desperate are they to get someone to live in the home. There are many empty homes falling into disrepair in my neighborhood in a Tokyo suburb, at least one just down the street from us. There were several more but they have been torn down over the years. And we live on a main thoroughfare.
True. I'm in Masuda now for GW and there are plenty of empty houses/empty lots in the middle of the place. As indeed there are in Izumo in the right (wrong?) areas.
But part of that is that Japanese people tend to want a new house not an old one in an old quarter so they build new houses (like the one we built 10 years ago) when they could take over an older one. Some people do take those places, knock the house down and rebuild. The land is basically free which is a plus, but on the other hand I've heard that there can be old neighbor issues which you don't get moving into a new estate of new houses.
Also true, but I think those just exasperate the problem; Japan’s population is shrinking and aging.
Here is another aspect that I think you’ll appreciate. A student’s in-laws had great difficulty in selling there property out in the country. It had been in the family for hundreds of years over which numerous disputes over the property line had been documented. Those disputes needed to be readjudicated before they could sell it. Image using documents and books hundreds of years old to close a sale! They finally did, after years of trying. Small wonder so many properties are abandoned here.
While surveying the roads around the river on Google Maps I noticed a, as deemed by Google, guest house in 大朝 with a review calling it a お試し住宅. That sounds like the sort of program you were speaking of based on the description of お試し住宅 in the below page?
Maybe. I only know that they rent it for short stays. We have stayed there at least 3 times, once with another family. My wife and the mother of the other family are friends. My wife handled the reservations so I do not all that they may offer.
Beautiful display of the seasons fleeting moments!
As if the urge from the post wasn't strong enough already; looking at the roads following the river, even a very light bicycle trip could be completed in 12 hours or so.
I've cycled pretty much the whole thing at different times. There are a couple of spots where you need to be on a moderately busy main road but they are rare. If you do come here with a bike I'll be happy to give you more advice.
PS Most of the photos I used in this post were taken on rides.
I were looking at routing starting from 川池鉄穴流し遺跡 and ending at Gotsu lighthouse, which seems to be just an additional ~70km on top of the trip from Miyoshi.
Although half the inclination for the route seem to also be from that part.
Thanks for the offer, I'll definitely take the opportunity if I get the chance to travel again!
Good place to start. The temple I have as the leaves picture is just around the corner. For quite a bit after the Haji dam you can ride on a road that is the levee though you need to change sides about where rte 54 crosses the river. There's a cycling event - the Tour de Hiroshima Akitakata - that does that part which is how I know what it is like.
I have a vague plan one day to start at Gotsu head up to Asahicho (旭町) in Hamada and then up to Geihoku (lunch at 芸北ぞうさんカフ). Then from there cycle to join where you plan to start from and continue down to probably Miyoshi. But possibly somewhere not quite as far. And day two continue down all the way back to Gotsu.
Right now the yen is cheap and we've had relatively little inflation (compared to the US or UK) so for the first time in several decades it is possible to visit Japan on a relatively limited budget
Nice write up. The closing of the rail line is another symptom of the demographic crash of the rural areas of Japan. In our area, some of the empty homes are available to stay in over night of a few days. We have done this several times prior to the panic. It is a bit strange staying in someone else’s home with they not being there nor even meeting them. The homes are fully furnished, with family photos on the walls. The owners are generally elderly and in the hospital for extended times and the adult kids away for work. Local retirees too over a restaurant that closed down and serve home style cooking made of local produce and fish for reasonable prices. Locals took us out to collect various edible wild plants including takenoko. On one Spring trip we planted satoimo and in the Fall we went back to help harvest it. This was organized and operated by the community as a way to keep vacant homes lived in at least on a part time basis and bring in some income. Is there similar around the Gonokawa area? I ask that not even knowing the fate of the program I am writing about here as I doubt they operated it during the years of the panic. I cannot image elderly country folk inviting anyone for the Tokyo area in to their community and homes when governors “recommended” no one cross prefectural borders.
I think the closing of the rail lines is more due to the improvement of the roads.
When I first visited the Gonokawa area 25ish years ago the road from Miyoshi to Gotsu was horrible. Even though most of it was technically a national road (kokudo) the actual roads where windy and narrow with limited spots where you could let traffic going the other way pass. Now there is exactly one spot where you need to wait and there's a tunnel that has been built that will allow that spot to be skipped once they fix a bridge. When the road was that slow and inconvenient it made sense to take the train because the train was faster. Now it isn't so it doesn't.
I forgot that you are in a rare booming area. The headline below gives a glimpse of what most of the rest of the country is experiencing.
Over 40% of Japan's municipalities at risk of vanishing, study finds
The Japan Times Apr 24, 2024
I have been reading articles on services in rural areas being reduced or cut due to lack of passengers for years now. It has been cited among the reasons for the elderly relocating to Tokyo or other urban areas and the resultant empty house problem. In the early days of the panic, I read that 14% of stand alone houses in the country are vacant. After meeting a new coworker a couple of weeks ago, they emailed me to offer a free farm house in Saitama. All I would be required to pay for is utilities and upkeep. If I were not able to accept, they asked if I knew anyone who could, so desperate are they to get someone to live in the home. There are many empty homes falling into disrepair in my neighborhood in a Tokyo suburb, at least one just down the street from us. There were several more but they have been torn down over the years. And we live on a main thoroughfare.
True. I'm in Masuda now for GW and there are plenty of empty houses/empty lots in the middle of the place. As indeed there are in Izumo in the right (wrong?) areas.
But part of that is that Japanese people tend to want a new house not an old one in an old quarter so they build new houses (like the one we built 10 years ago) when they could take over an older one. Some people do take those places, knock the house down and rebuild. The land is basically free which is a plus, but on the other hand I've heard that there can be old neighbor issues which you don't get moving into a new estate of new houses.
Also true, but I think those just exasperate the problem; Japan’s population is shrinking and aging.
Here is another aspect that I think you’ll appreciate. A student’s in-laws had great difficulty in selling there property out in the country. It had been in the family for hundreds of years over which numerous disputes over the property line had been documented. Those disputes needed to be readjudicated before they could sell it. Image using documents and books hundreds of years old to close a sale! They finally did, after years of trying. Small wonder so many properties are abandoned here.
While surveying the roads around the river on Google Maps I noticed a, as deemed by Google, guest house in 大朝 with a review calling it a お試し住宅. That sounds like the sort of program you were speaking of based on the description of お試し住宅 in the below page?
https://smout.jp/features/31/plans
Maybe. I only know that they rent it for short stays. We have stayed there at least 3 times, once with another family. My wife and the mother of the other family are friends. My wife handled the reservations so I do not all that they may offer.
Beautiful display of the seasons fleeting moments!
As if the urge from the post wasn't strong enough already; looking at the roads following the river, even a very light bicycle trip could be completed in 12 hours or so.
Yep. Especially if you go in the downstream direction. There's a marked route (not that route finding is complicated) between Miyoshi and Gotsu.
https://www.kankou-shimane.com/cycling/cyclingroute/sankosen/
I've cycled pretty much the whole thing at different times. There are a couple of spots where you need to be on a moderately busy main road but they are rare. If you do come here with a bike I'll be happy to give you more advice.
PS Most of the photos I used in this post were taken on rides.
Fantastic to hear!
I were looking at routing starting from 川池鉄穴流し遺跡 and ending at Gotsu lighthouse, which seems to be just an additional ~70km on top of the trip from Miyoshi.
Although half the inclination for the route seem to also be from that part.
Thanks for the offer, I'll definitely take the opportunity if I get the chance to travel again!
Good place to start. The temple I have as the leaves picture is just around the corner. For quite a bit after the Haji dam you can ride on a road that is the levee though you need to change sides about where rte 54 crosses the river. There's a cycling event - the Tour de Hiroshima Akitakata - that does that part which is how I know what it is like.
I have a vague plan one day to start at Gotsu head up to Asahicho (旭町) in Hamada and then up to Geihoku (lunch at 芸北ぞうさんカフ). Then from there cycle to join where you plan to start from and continue down to probably Miyoshi. But possibly somewhere not quite as far. And day two continue down all the way back to Gotsu.
Looks like a nice climb with an interesting variation of both natural and artificial greenery. Thanks for sharing and thanks for the tips!
What a beautiful posting, thanks so much for sharing! Having never been to Japan, this weblog is extra-awesome!
Right now the yen is cheap and we've had relatively little inflation (compared to the US or UK) so for the first time in several decades it is possible to visit Japan on a relatively limited budget
A couple more pictures
https://substack.com/profile/13379579-francis-turner/note/c-77552923?