:: Leaving Akune Station
I didn’t rush to catch an early morning train. I suppose I wanted to look at Akune(阪久根)’s clear blue sky a little longer.
I checked out of the hostel and walked to Akune Station(阪久根駅). I walked taking one more careful look at Akune’s back streets. The sky was blue, and the day was hot. Still, I kept pressing the shutter, wanting to carry each piece of Akune’s scenery with me.
When I got to Akune Station and checked the schedule, I had a little over an hour to wait. I briefly thought about wandering around nearby a bit more, but decided to just spend the time at the station.
Akune Station is a pretty nice place — clean and cool. There’s a piano in the waiting area that anyone can play, and two women were playing a duet on it.
I waited for the train in the cool of the lounge space that’s open to anyone.
:: Today’s Stretch Is the Real Star of This Trip!
Akune to Sendai Station(川内駅) is 980 yen one way. On the Hisatsu Orange Railway(肩薩おれんじ鉄道), of course.
I took the 11:48 train. The weather is great again today. The sky is blue.
Yesterday’s run from Izumi Station(出水駅) to Akune Station was a pleasant one too, but today’s run from Akune Station to Sendai Station is a much better one.
A little while after leaving Akune Station the sea starts to appear, and then the train keeps running along a route with green forest and sea in view. The stretch between Satsuma Ohkawa Station(薩摩大川駅) and Satsuma Taki Station(薩摩高城駅) in particular runs right along the sea.
:: Arriving at Sendai Station
Akune Station to Sendai Station took about 35 minutes. The scenery was so good that I felt reluctant to get off. I really did.
But there was no running any further. Sendai Station is the terminus of the Hisatsu Orange Railway. I had no choice but to get off, full of regret.
It really is a stretch where there’s no time to get bored, watching out the window. The views are so good that I want to ride it again.
It was literally the highlight of this trip, the key stretch. No — I could say that the real star of this trip was today’s train.
Sendai Station. That’s the name of the train station in the city of Satsumasendai(薩摩川内市).
The city’s name was originally Sendai(川内), I hear. Which meant it was pronounced the same as Sendai(仙台) far away in Miyagi Prefecture(宮城県).
So in 2004 the city was renamed Satsumasendai, with the name of the Satsuma domain added in front. But the train station still just uses Sendai. I suppose they figured nobody would get confused, since the stations are enormously far apart.
This city isn’t so much a famous tourist destination as a commercial one, with large companies and things like power plants. In any case, today the travel in Satsumasendai begins.
Even if there isn’t much to see, I decided to spend the night here, because it’s where the Orange Railway and the Kagoshima Main Line meet.
First I should check into the hotel… but there’s still quite a lot of time left.
The rest of the story continues in the next post.
