Postcard from...Tsuruga, Fukui

Northern Japanese Alps, from Toyoshina station

I took a detour recently to knock off a couple of bucket list train trips.

Firstly, I wanted to ride the recently extended Hokuriku Shinkansen all the way around the north coast to its new terminus at Tsuruga...and ideally explore that corner of Fukui and the northern coast of Kyoto. Unfortunately, that part of the coastline will have to wait for another visit, I think by car, given the relative inaccessibility of the area & the less the less than easy to get to places I'd really like to explore, around Wakasa Bay, without having to rush to make connections.

The earliest Shinano from Matsumoto was a beautiful autumnal sunrise ride, the Northern Alps beyond Azumino to the left (west) before the Chikuma valley appeared after the tunnels either side of  sleepy  Omi/Hijiri-kogen. And what an appearance - spreading out to the north with Nagano city sprawled in the middle. A fairly unique train journey given the climb the line makes to cross from Shinshu to Chikuma (the two geographical & historical halves of modern Nagano prefecture).

If you want some anorak information about Shinano click here and for the route, here

JR East E7

From Nagano you won't get much of a view, as the line carves through a number of tunnels at light speed - this train really does get a shift on. Super smooth, and before you know it you're cutting the corner of Niigata prefecture and decelerating into Toyama with the Sea of Japan on your right already. Eyes left (south) for a stunning mountainscape. This part of the line, openned in 2015 is extremely swift!

Our shinkansen slows down after Kanazawa, dropping south through Ichikawa & Fukui prefectures with fewer and fewer passengers. This stretch of line only openned in March this year (2024); Tsuraga obviously not the final intended stop. I am sure, once the final leg is finished to Osaka (in another 20 years' time?) the route will open up the region - and not soon enough - the Noto peninsula desperately needs better transport access & investment to recover from the hammer blows of earthquake & typhoon damage this year.

Kagayaki: Tokyo–Tsuruga, limited-stop service, since 14 March 2015
Hakutaka: Tokyo–Tsuruga, mostly all-stations service, since 14 March 2015
Tsurugi: Toyama–Tsuruga, mostly all-stations shuttle service, since 14 March 2015
Asama: Tokyo–Nagano, mostly all-stations service, corresponding to existing Nagano Shinkansen service introduced in 1997

Follow the yellow (or blue!) brick road

And what of Tsuruga? No time to explore the town but just enough to find a nest of Thunderbirds, the aged limited express that used to service the line up to Kanazawa from Osaka/Kyoto, hugging the shore of Lake Biwa. The views of the lake are limited, unfortunately, especially if you are not sitting by the window & cannot keep the curtain up. My fellow foreign travellers glued to games on their phones/and ignoring the historic sites across the water. Really, really frustrating ignorance (and your enormous suitcases are even more annoying).


Familiar limited express rolling stock (JR-West 683-4000); comfy enough but looks & feels 'tired'...good enough for my needs and the relatively short trundle to Osaka - the non-shinkansen line from Kyoto taking a little more time, but divested of the tourons a chance to enjoy the suburban corridor. No rush!

Kissing Thuderbirds, Tsuruga station

I'm glad I made the effort to sweep around the "Hokuriku Arch" - an area begging to be discovered more slowly. There is a rail pass for this region that would be good value & allow travellers to stop over & linger for a whole week. Inner trainspotter satisfied!

Postcard from...Niigata, Japan

I went to the sea of Niigata with my mother, my sisters and family in summer vacation.

Very good weather and beer was very delicious. 

Fishing and swimming in the sea.

My son seemed very happy to make a castle of sand and pick up the shells, and he got sunburned.

The sea is the best - I love the sea!!

Posted for Kanako

September 11th - a positive story

September 11^th was an important date for our examiners recently trained/professionally developed in Yamagata, Niigata and Fukushima. They got to get their teeth into some candidates – not literally of course. At least, not that I’ve heard!

Our examiners also had another hat to wear, as the nature of their examining was a co-operative deal with other school owners/venues running Young Learners….which is exactly the way I saw this working when the idea was conceived in a cross country drive with Steve Holland to Sendai nearly two years ago. I do like it when ducks get lined up – doesn’t happen too often, and the Tohoku disaster did put a rather large wrench in the works (Tomomi is still our hero for her examining in April).

Steve’s school (Windmill English Center) in Aizuwakamatsu became a venue for the first time back in June, offering KET & PET to Fukushima. Disco Paul was my co-pilot for that rocket drive, where we were able to help Steve “cross the t’s and dot the i’s”, besides interview the speaking candidates. Steve showed us the field next to his house where he could not stand up during the earthquake March 11^th. We know it is not easy to get everything right first time as a venue – but it is very important that things are done by the book. We even translated the book (it is the fifth Gospel, ‘according to Yuki’). It was our privilege to get WEC on the map.

Alan Morrison’s school (Sunshine English) in Ojiya, Niigata, also became a YLE venue for the first time. Mark & I drove down the river, quite literally from Luna to his school two hours downstream, a couple of years ago when they had KET & PET. We might be repeating that journey in November now, by the way – great! Another town, incidentally, with considerable earthquake issues of its own.

Both of Ryan Hagglund’s schools (MY English) in Yamagata (Yamagata city and Sakata) were very first time venues, so particular congratulations to Ryan and his staff. I am hoping to visit their venue soon – not least because I have very fond memories of a motorbike trip through beautiful Yamagata year gone by!

Thank you Stephen, Alan, Ryan for getting organised & working together to make this unique session successful. Not quite a profit turner for any of you yet, but obviously an immediate pay off for the students at your schools and an indictment of the professional approach you take to teaching English. I sincerely hope your first YLE sessions are the thin end of the wedge. Let’s plan your 2012 session now, and get Mike, Anna, Ben, Mario examining too!

We are proud of you!