#2025-07

One of the three One Piece Shinkansen sets (700 Series) departs Shin-Iwakuni bound for Shin-Ôsaka, with a 500 Series waiting to continue West for Hakata.

Finally, another cat-themed train: Aizu Railway's AT-551 unit is the "Nyan-tabi tetsudô" special, for the cat staff at Ashinomaki Onsen station.

We've covered the Anpanman Trains previously, specifically the one operating from Okayama. Above is its counterpart starting at Takamatsu - the Shiokaze and Ishizuchi expresses join together at Utazu before running together to Matsuyama.

The whole train is decorated, mostly rather moderately, and everyone gets a themed welcome announcement (link to YouTube video, not my recording). Like the Hello Kitty train, there is one carriage where things get crazy: this is a reserved seat carriage, which I didn't visit as I was using a non-reserved rail pass. But I did see through the windows at a terminus station, and it's full rainbow inside! The seats used in that carriage were also on display at the Shikoku Railway Cultural Center in Saijô.

The museum had a whole exhibit on Anpanman trains, including boards showing all the decorations used since the scheme's inception in October 2000. Last time we checked, JR Shikoku were celebrating 1 million passengers, now we're on the 25th anniversary!

The very first Anpanman train was a 2000 series tilting Diesel multiple unit, JR Shikoku's first tilting train, introduced in 1990. This comes full circle with our previous post, where I noted that the two 2600 series DMUs are the next trains to join the Anpanman fleet. This has been done, I've seen some pictures doing the rounds.

One 2000 series Anpanman train still runs between Matsuyama and Uwajima, on the Uwakai express service running in tandem with the Shiokaze/Ishizuchi trains from Okayama and Takamatsu, and "tandem" is the correct term: the trains, in very similar livery, connect with each other at Matsuyama. I wasn't aware of this particular train when I arrived off the ferry from Kyûshû, but nothing says "welcome to Shikoku" like an Anpanman Train coming to pick you up!

The Hachinohe line's highlight is getting near the sea between Samekado Lighthouse and the rocky coastline. A JR East local KiHa 130 passes in the early afternoon.

Around 20 huge wooden effigies start their journey in the city centre, at the foot of the castle hill, and will travel to Warei-jinja, their spiritual home. Well, I say "huge", but there is also a childrens' parade, with the cows and distance adapted to size, as they only go to the end of the covered high street. As shown in the video at the top, several cows will dance together, and all will charge at the priests' stand for blessing. All this, sometimes, with someone riding the cow!

The parade goes down the arcade, out to the station, and back around to finish at Warei park and shrine. Food stands and other amusements are available there, showing that this is a matsuri for the locals to enjoy above all. A few people did talk to me and were very friendly, offering to pose next to the effigies during a break - and possibly hoping I'd help carry them on the next leg, but in that weather, walking around was hard enough!

At the back of the parade is a more solemn procession of two cows. Priests and younger devotees in traditional kimono symbolise the return of the ushi-oni to Warei-jinja, and the closure of the festival takes place along the river at the shrine in the evening. As for the effigies, they are dismantled along the river, having done their job. I don't know if the wood joins the bonfires and new cows are built each year, or if they can be re-used. Either way, at that point I was David Attenborough-ing to myself, "and here we see the end of the ushi-oni's life cycle".

Also on Hokkaidô, the Suzuran express operated by a silver 785 series arrives at Shiraoi under a silver sky.

On a brighter day, the OG Kyushu Shinkansen, the 800 series (my fourth-favourite Shinkansen of all time), arrives at Kurume on an all-stop Tsubame service.

Takamatsu (0 km) is a port city on the spectacular Seto Inland Sea. The former castle, with moats, stone walls and a few turrets still standing, is a couple of hundred metres from the station, close enough to feature.

While the main keep is long gone, the grounds offer a nice park to stroll through. The best park in Takamatsu is undoubtedly Ritsurin, but it's not on the Yosan line, so it's a post for another time.

Sakaide (21 km) is the last station before the Seto Ôhashi line branches off, headed for the main island of Honshû and Okayama city. Hourly rapid Marine Liner services do the heavy lifting on the cross-channel route from Takamatsu. The above video (not my recording - I do have one from Imabari, but it's not this good) allows us to hear the "train incoming" melody used in stations where Seto trains stop. The tune is based on an award-winning 1972 song by Koyanagi Rumiko, Seto no Hanayome ("bride of Seto"), which tells of a woman going to Shikoku to get married, and, having noticed it, it's going to be なつかしい for me, a warm reminder of my time in Shikoku.

Utazu (26 km) is on the other side of the junction, and is where the Ishizuchi express services for Matsuyama join with the Shiokaze from the mainland. This shot is technically off the Yosan line, on a train to Okayama, but it gives us one of the better views of the long road & rail bridges.