Zhongshan Road. Kiso Road: Separate travel and hiking on an old road with falling snow (Part 1)

The song "Travel Separately" by Huang Lixing and Rene Liu was playing in the headphones. One person chose to go to Los Angeles, and the other person wanted to fly to Paris.

Ah! I got off the car without taking my scarf.

Standing on the Minamigiso platform where the limited express train had left, the low temperature in the mountains, along with the cold wind and fine snow, hit me with a biting chill. Only then did I realize that the scarf left in the carriage had become lost. of beauty. The scarf and the traveler thus traveled separately.

In about an hour, the train bound for Nakatsugawa will arrive at the station. It was so cold that I walked around the station with an umbrella, just to get rid of the low temperature that clung to me desperately after breaking up with the scarf. While waiting for the bus, I stopped in front of the tourist information map of Minamigiso Town. I originally just wanted to walk in the snow in the surrounding area, but little did I know that after this walk, I would never be able to return to Minamigiso Station.

After the scarf, due to the unplanned movement on foot, the trip was temporarily separated from the railway and bus.

Nakasendo is one of the five streets established in the Edo period. It is also known as "Nakasendo" and "Nakasendo". Common people are more accustomed to calling it "Kiso Road" or "Kiso Street". It was the connection between Edo in the past. An inland transportation hub with Kyoto. Compared with the famous "Fifty-three Tokaido Road", which means that the journey on the Tokaido Road will pass through fifty-three towns, the Nakasen Road has sixty-nine times.

Seeing the sign pointing to Tsumago-juku was the straw that made me embark on the road of no return(?). Wearing only a pair of brand new snowshoes, I walked step by step into the mountain pass where the snow was getting thicker and thicker. In the snowy weather, I had to be busy holding an umbrella, and I couldn't spare my hands to walk on the mountain trail with a trekking pole. What's more, it was a temporary hike on the old trail. Of course, it was impossible to prepare such a thing.

The area between Tsumago Pass and Magome Pass is now part of the Shinano Nature Trail. The weather of winter and snow is never the time for hiking. There will be no blooming Somei Yoshino, Yae Sakura or fresh greenery on the roadside. There will also be no mountain friends looking at each other. You will nod and say hello one after another. "こんにちは", among the houses passing by, there was also silence and no human voice was heard.

I couldn't tell whether it was Akita's or Shiro's dog. He looked at me in his garage for five minutes. With a puzzled look on his face, he probably wanted to say:

Who are you? What are you doing here? It’s rare to meet travelers on the trail in this season!

I was walking on a trail that had not seen any pedestrians along the way. There were only footprints on the snow that I had just stepped on. Even if there were other human traces, they had been covered by the recent snowfall until they were almost blurry. Most of them were traces of the lives of local residents rather than traces of other people. Travel traces. On the way here, there were no warning signs saying "Beware of Bears". I expected that in this season, not to mention bear sightings, the bear's hibernation has not ended yet (probably).

Even though the road sign clearly indicated the direction and the number of kilometers, the snow was falling and the road ahead still seemed unclear. Maybe I fell into the Kiso River before I stepped on the air. Thoughts of walking back appeared from time to time, but my body honestly continued to move forward. Since my hair was half washed, I could only slow down the pace and ensure that every step I took, I could continue to move forward with the real feeling of the Kiso Ancient Road. .

Looking left, right and forward, who am I? where am I? There are always various reasons for traveling separately from your companions: because you got separated; because you were driven by the trail signs and suddenly wanted to change the road; or maybe, there is no need for any reason at all. Therefore, I am.

The Kiso Road under Shirayuki's make-up makes the retired National Railways locomotives in the SL Plaza particularly eye-catching. The D51 type locomotive, nicknamed "Dugger", was mass-produced during the war and widely used for freight transportation. D51351, which was born a year before the Pacific War, served in Kanazawa, Fukui and other sections on the Sea of ​​Japan until the end of the 1960s after the war, and finally settled on the old Central Line between the Kiso Valley.

Mugen Train only appears in anime, but trains in reality have a limited service life. With the abolition of lines, relocation of stations, and the spread of electrification, the D51 steam locomotive powered by coal and water has completed the phased transportation mission of the wartime system and post-war reconstruction, and no longer spits out black and white. The smoke, rushing along the mountain line or sea line, is gradually given another still posture, displayed in museums or various educational and recreational places, silently telling generations of people and railway fans about their past. Place in the history of railways and travel.

I waved my hand and said goodbye to the immortal D51351 limited machine. I will have the opportunity to meet the brothers and sisters of the D51 series on other old roads in the future.

(to be continued)

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