The Sanriku Coast's Unbeatable Spirit - Train Cruise

[Music] look at that look at that a train trip overlooking the pacific ocean [Music] the sunriku railway riaz line stretches the length of the iwate prefecture coastline in japan's northeast the trains travel 163 kilometers the precipitous landscape makes for a dramatic backdrop through one tunnel then straight out into another and beyond to discover the blessings of the sea you can see right down to the bottom here [Music] wow that guy [Music] absolutely beautiful and very very sweet oh beautifully smooth however the coast of iwate suffered severe damage in the great east japan earthquake in the eyes of local residents the sanrika railway was a beacon of hope for the region's recovery [Music] train crews along an unbeatable rail line my journey begins in kuji a city facing the pacific ocean in the north of iwata prefecture welcome to kuji city in iwate prefecture now the sunrica railway is one of those iconic train journeys in japan and i'm really excited for this trip i'm hoping to meet some really wonderful people some fantastic food and some beautiful scenery so let's go check it out ah i can grab some food here so maybe we'll do that we'll get something for the for the trip oh uni uni bento sea urchin sea urchin bento um [Music] in typical japanese fashion very small and very cute look at that isn't that gorgeous presentation that's my pack lunch for the journey sea urchin is considered a luxury food in japan and is also popular as a sushi topping its umami infuses the rice when they are steamed together [Music] the sea urchin is packed to blanket the bed of rice the shop only makes 20 search in bento a day and they sell like hotcakes this bento is the brainchild of kunie kudo [Music] her sea urchin bento have been a hot item since the sunrica railway opened in 1984 [Music] she originally sold them on the trains but for the past 10 years she has focused solely on shop sales [Music] oh it's a little one one carriage most of the lines trains are only one or two cars long it bustles with the chatter of high school students in the mornings and afternoons okay here we go the sunrico region centered on iwate prefecture runs along honshu's north eastern coast [Music] takes its name from the coastal topography the irregular and indented coastline is a series of flooded river valleys [Music] in autumn the stalks in the paddies are heavy with golden heads of rice ready for harvest just be with me just be with me it's nice to be on a train going through countryside not houses and metropolis in the city [Music] and 15 minutes later here's my first stop like station it's unique in that it's a stop for both trains and cars the roadside station next door is a haven for drivers on long road trips you can see the salt that's being sold here this region is very famous for its salt not a shio not assault sea water is boiled down for four days to extract its natural salt that's probably enough oh yeah oh i wasn't expecting to say it was tasty that's actually very it's very good it's delicious actually it's coarse cut so it's kind of crunchy and there's much more to check out and here we have great produce the wild grapes are also used to make jams and [Music] juice it's yama budo harvest time so i head to a nearby vineyard [Music] and use the juice as a nutritious remedy for ailments here we go he's taking are usually astringent but the region's climatic conditions give the ones cultivated here a high sugar contents [Music] contributing to this is the daily difference in temperatures in summer caused by cold ocean breezes called [Music] yamasen [Music] yoshimi sato picked plants that were disease resistant and would bear much fruit and nurtured his vineyard using cuttings 18 years later he's finally able to grow fruit he's proud of [Music] he says a special new product is being developed using the grapes so i go for a look winery we have a winery right here i'm imagining on the other side of this the view is going to be amazing but first of all let's check out the wine this winery established in 2016 produces 20 000 bottles of wine annually we're heading for a spot just next to the winery wow until its closure in 1987 the mine supplied manganese for the steel industry and for use in batteries you can see the railroad tracks here as well previously when this was an actual mine it was actually working mine all the way all the way down from oh right over there all the way to the entrance very dramatic very indiana jones about a kilometer into the earth we reach the secret location hey the mine shaft temperature stays about 10 degrees celsius year-round with a humidity of 80 percent the perfect conditions for maturing the wine in barrels it takes eight months to produce the characteristic yamabudo wine wow [Music] what better place to savour the wine than a hill overlooking the ocean let's have a little taste ah yes now having heard what he told me about the sweet and sour and the balance and the challenge of that balance i get it completely it's a very strong taste very good they're super fruity very rich look at the color marvelous color here's the chopsticks now lunch oh let me do that one more time i wasn't expecting that look at this look at that [Music] oh beautifully smooth so the sea urchin on top the juices and the flavors have seeped into the rice below that's all she did the lady she put the rice in the cooker and let the sea urchin infuse the rice the rice is delicious [Music] and back on the train looking around i see more tourists than earlier today the railway weaves its way along and through the rugged craggy coastline [Music] one tragic event led to its construction in 1896 an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of over eight triggered a massive tsunami that destroyed thousands of homes and claimed more than twenty thousand lives the treacherous mountain roads hampered rescue efforts and people began calling for the construction of a railroad work progressed slowly over many years and construction was suspended due to the ailing financial situation of the national railway at the time [Music] despite this setback private businesses and local governments funded the establishment of the san diego railway to take over construction the long-awaited line opened in 1984 [Applause] there was only one way to conquer the rugged coastline and that was to go through it from one end of the line to the other there are no fewer than 80 tunnels so this little strip of the train track here is tunnels we've just come out of one now i think i'll probably be about to go into another one the thing is when you come out of the tunnel suddenly it's a gorgeous view so we're looking forward to that coming up soon here we go opened up another great view yes check that out we are very high up here so the train has stopped specifically so people can take pictures right here so you haven't taken pictures the stunning coastal views are the product of violent thrusts in the earth's crust the resulting terrain was carved by waves and the elements into sheer cliffs [Music] we will still make a bridge doll pass passengers are lighting here please exit through the front door on the right side the wooden station building is modeled on a traditional house with japanese tiles on the roof [Music] a really cool decoration wow it's very nice the ceiling is a traditional woven matting of tree bark and bamboo [Music] the coast here has lots of rocky tracts which sea urchins and abalone love the fishermen use small boats to get easier access to their habitats [Music] very dramatic clear face here i think this gentleman here is the fisherman who i'm about to meet so i'm off on a different cruise along the coast on this small fishing boat the only people who had the pleasure of viewing this fascinating scenery were fishermen this is super dramatic we're going right through the rocks here there that is 200 meters the sheer height of it is really impressive the sharp cliffs continue for eight kilometers up close you can feel the earth's energy my of course you need serene conditions and a low tide wow super impressive you can feel the power look at it look at the color of the water just look at that and just look at that above us can you hear that can you hear that sound the waves crashing around us quite a calm day today so even now with the calm day you can really feel it you can really hear it wow foreign [Music] and quite amazingly really not many foreigners take this trip i thoroughly recommend if you're on a trip here and you've taken a lovely cruise on the train you've seen some amazing things take a moment to come here and take that trip it's about an hour it's excursion huge value for money after the train leaves tanohata station the view changes again so you see the reconstruction being done here after the tsunami that is protecting from a further tsunami construction is still going on here years afterwards recovery from the 2011 east japan earthquake is a long journey in itself [Music] i can see and i can feel great value in preserving this building as it is i can understand the choice that they made to keep this here there's nothing else here that's the only building that's standing it really is impossible to just read and appreciate you have to really see it i think to appreciate it so i'm understanding of the choice to keep this here [Music] my last stop today is located roughly around the center of the rhias line [Music] miyako station is sanrika railway's heart that is its rolling stockyard [Music] operations he shows me some of the trains wow the train has raced through the ocean breezes since [Music] 1984 railway suffered great damage in the 2011 earthquake station buildings and tracks were swept away by the tsunami making the lines impassable but just five days after the disaster trains resumed operations on the less damage sections [Music] [Music] awesome [Music] just after five in the morning a grand catch has arrived at the miyakov fish market the waters off san diego coast a confluence of coals and warm currents are some of the best for salmon squid scallops and other seafood but it's the bidding war that's going on that's the real vibrancy you can feel here that they're bidding on that the fish has come in this morning not not 10 minutes ago they've checked it out and now they're bidding for it in a language i can barely understand it's half japanese half speedy something i've no idea what they're saying so starts day two of my journey down the sanriku coast [Music] first stop today kamaishi station high purity iron was once mined in abundance at kameh and japan's first western style furnace was built here in 1858 its remains are designated part of the unesco heritage sites of japan's meiji industrial revolution [Music] japan's oldest steelworks opens here in 1880 the town thrived along with the industry everyone would go to one particular shrine to pray for safety at the steel works so i've come to a lovely little shrine here very typical shrine layout what you expect we have a big gate here at the entrance but the big difference is at this shrine and we'll start with the gate itself it's made of steel not wood now how befitting is that for a steel producing town [Music] i pop in for a visit to an ironworks by the sea [Music] third generation proprietor before the disaster this ironworks mainly produce machine parts once operations resumed iwamasan took a new direction you have chairs and smartphone cases all made with steel with the ongoing rebuilding of homes after the tsunami one architect suggested that iwamasan make a prototype iron switch plate everyone was taken by its beauty so he decided to add it to his products [Music] dark green cane these steel hooks are reasonably priced and i'm about to try my hand at making one [Music] [Laughter] it's moving there we go perfect that's a perfect hook [Music] there we go that is a perfect hook han [Laughter] yeah right iwamasan gives me a tiny bit of help to make it a sleek s shape fantastic there we go this is this is artistry this is not easy of course it's not easy this is actual artistry right here [Music] it almost at the end of my trip [Music] oh wow loads and loads of shells these are clamshells oh wow [Music] the scallop shells bear the wishes and hopes of the many who've passed through the station here's another one down here i think this is a mother praying for her son and daughter to find love another similar one just here hopefully these two people can find [Music] happiness the name of the station is written with the kanji character for love koi and this has become a popular powerful spot for love and lovers the reason lies in the local topography sea water rich in nutrients flows into the bay and mingles with nutrient-rich water flowing out of the rivers this makes it a breeding ground for the plankton on which scallops feed jon sazaki has carried on his father's legacy raising scallops for 30 years wow wow oh the scallops harvested in koishihama bay are popular across japan for being meaty and sweet presentation wow thank you so much look at that oh um oh beautiful absolutely beautiful and very very sweet kore kara [Music] animals back at the station i too write a message on a shell [Music] the end of the line i've traveled the 163 kilometers of the riaz line from iwata's north to its very south [Music] i'm struck on this trip by the great sense of the before and the after there before would be sites like this which may be hundreds of millions of years old to the more recent tragic events that nature has provided through the tsunami and the earthquake but those two juxtapositions are mirrored in the face of the people that live here they're surviving they're trying to thrive they're living with what the earth has provided for them and that's a really beautiful thing to see after every tragic event they've tried to get a little bit better try to connect themselves a little bit more to what they have here and there's a really wonderful demonstration of that in the fact that the sunrico train line is now connected for the first time right from the top to the very bottom [Music] you

Channel: NHK WORLD-JAPAN

Views: 319,735

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Id: 6XDyX76OgLk

Length: 44min 5sec (2645 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 01 2021