Heikes Covered Bridge

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Yunishigawa-onsen station, located at Nikko City in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, is a station of the Yagan Railway Aizu Kinugawa line. The station is between the end of the Katsurosan Tunnel and the Yunishigawa Bridge. It has a daily ridership of 92 passengers in 2011. I took this movie of station, vicinity and trains at Yunishigawa-onsen station on the Yagan Railway Aizu Kinugawa line. Yunishigawa-onsen station has a reinforced concrete one-storied building on the tunnel. Yunishigawa-onsen station adjoins the "Roadside Station YUNISHIGAWA" parallelly. There are some bus stops in front of the station. The number of buses for Yunishigawa-onsen (Yunishigawa Hot Spring) is 12 between 8 and 18 o'clock and the number of buses for Kinugawa-onsen (Kinugawa Hot Spring) is 8 between 10 and 19 o'clock. The road in front of the station is the National Route 121 connecting Yamagata Prefecture and Tochigi Prefecture via Fukushima Prefecture. The traffic is comparatively busy. The eastern parking by the railway station is only for authorized people. Public vehicles may not use here. The "Roadside Station YUNISHIGAWA" is two-storied lodge-style building The western parking by the roadside station is opened up to public vehicles. This colorful bus is the nation's first amphibious bus "LEGEND ZERO ONE". The amphibious bus is used for cruise around the Yunishigawa Dam. The maximum speed is 90km/h on land and 5 knots on water. There is a free ashiyu (public bath where people can bathe their feet) in front of the roadside station. The ashiyu opened between 9:00 and 17:00. There are a cafe, tourist information center, souvenir shop and restraunt on the 1st floor. The shop opens between 9:00 and 17:00 and the restraunt opens between 11:00 and 15:00 (drink can be ordered until 16:00). There is a hot spring facility "YUNOSATO" on the 2nd floor. Tourists can enjoy natural hot spring including bedrock bath between 9:00 and 21:00. Across the road you can see Lake Ikari formed by the Ikari Dam built in 1956. The iron bridge over the lake is the Yunishigawa Bridge, completed in 1983, of Yagan Railway Aizu Kinugawa line. Superficially regarded, it seems rusty old bridge. In fact, the bridge is made from weathering steel, whose stable rust protects inner steel without paint. The length of the bridge is 240m and the height above the lake surface is about 20m. The bridge, connecting the Katsurosan Tunnel and the 2nd Misaki Tunnel, is often used for advertisement photo of the Yagan Railway. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes from the Yunishigawa-onsen station to the Yunishigawa onsen (hot spring). Because of long distance between bus stops and little passengers on the way bus stops, there is an auto interpretation of Yunishigawa onsen in the bus. The road to the onsen were redeveloped in accordance with the construction of the Yunishigawa Dam (completed in 2012). There are many bridges and tunnels on the way. Yunishigawa onsen is a quiet hot spring resort along the Yunishigawa River's valley. There is a lore of fleeing Heike warrior in this hot spring. To escape from chase and live quietly, people retain custom that they don't plant flying carp, make a bonfire, and keep chickens. The onsen is colorless, transparent, bland, innocuous, and alkaline water. The mild water is aimed at everyone. The "Roadside Station Yunishigawa" and Yunishigawa-onsen station are connected by passageway. The passageway is integrated with the building and covered with glass window and roof protect passangers from weather. There are station staffs in Yunishikawa-onsen station. Tickets are sold and checked at the ticket wicket. Passangers need to go down in an elevator or take the stairs to go to the platform on the first basement level at 597.5 meter elevation. Using elevator on the left is easy way to the platform but it is boring. If you are robust, I recommend you to use stairs because using it has a sense of moving to the underground. Walking down the statirs, there is a illuminated tunnnel with a message that "watch your step going home". Trains moving to the left is for Aizukogen-zeguchi and Aizu-Tajima. Right is for Kinugawa-onsen and Asakusa. Yunishigawa-onsen station, located at the end of Katsurosan Tunnel, has a platform with a track. Passanger on the platform may feel cool and dampness because the station is in the tunnel. While no trains are approaching, there are few sounds except stream sound. So it is eerily quiet. There is a stopping place board for 6-car-long train, but almost all train on this line is 2-car-long. The name of Yagan Railway comes from old name of Tochigi (Shimotsuke-no-kuni/Tsuke also read "Ya") and Fukushima (Iwashiro-no-kuni/Iwa also read "Gan"). The panelized waiting room in the middle of platform protects passengers from coldness and wind. There are 2 beverage vending machines on the platform. There are some balefire-style illumination lamps on the wall. The Yunishigawa Bridge can be seen beyond the end of tunnel. The 2nd Misaki Tunnel can be seen beyond the bridge. This scenery exhibits the feature of the Yagan Railway, which go through mountains between Tochigi and Fukushima.