Hi! Thanks so much and I’m so glad you enjoyed! Honestly I haven’t started *at all* planning my Hokkaido trip (also in August). Vague ideas are that I’d love to go out to Nemuro while staying in Obihiro on the way, and I need to get the Higashikawa Asaca from near Asahikawa too… ideally it’d be awesome to go up to Wakkanai as well, northernmost station in Japan, and see Rishiri & Rebun islands. And maybe ride the rest of the Senmo Main Line too??? I think that’ll probably take a flight or two, haha. (I had planned to go to Hakodate but I’ll actually be there this weekend, instead, so I can cut that out from August!)

Per https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6854.html it does look like there is some bus service around the Shiretoko Peninsula but yeah, it’s quite infrequent, though easier in summer than winter it seems. Might be a fun challenge to try and figure out! I haven’t done it myself but wish you luck if you try to do it (and let me know how it goes!)

Hahahaha omg really??? Amazing. Glad to know there are many of us out there who are almost-late to catching our trains at Oboke lol. I needed a bit of a break from writing and thinking about travel following my GW trip this year (last month), and I’m also traveling this weekend, but will be working on part two right after that, and hope to finish it by later this month!

Appreciate the kind words! Sorry it took me a bit to reply to this :)

So… this is sort of old-fashioned, but I haven’t set up an email subscription function or anything yet. Maybe I should! For now, you can subscribe using the blog’s RSS feed. If you have an RSS reader extension for your browser (“RSS Feed Reader” for Chrome and “Feedbro” for Firefox both seem popular), when you click on https://japan.elifessler.com/feed (or on the “Subscribe: RSS” link in the sidebar) it should prompt you to subscribe, and then let you configure notifications, how often it checks for new posts, etc.

Feedrabbit (https://feedrabbit.com/) is a free service that automates email alerts if you’d prefer that. If you try it out, please let me know how it works! I’ll start looking into the best way to set something up that’s a bit less of a hassle too, though. :D

Have a good day!

Ahhh, thank you so much for the really kind words, and for your support too!! This is so encouraging and makes me really happy to hear! Happy to find someone who also enjoys the style of travel I do. And also who takes claims of currencies on signs at face-value… :P

Have a blast in Sapporo! I’m headed up to Hokkaido again in August and am excited to see it in the not-snow for the first time.

Hi, Thanks for replying! The president’s blog is quite something hahaha.

Hey, glad you found it useful!

Yeah, Google Maps isn’t going to be able to figure out transferring to the bus that connects the two lines, but it (or other tools like Ekispert https://roote.ekispert.net/en) should help for timetables on each of the two lines – though I’m partial to looking at them manually, too! Assuming you’re not stopping at Okuōikojō or anything on the way back (I did all of that as I worked my way up, so heading back down was just a straight shot for me too) that should indeed be enough time. From the page you linked, piecing together the (out-of-order) info shown there:

15:15 Ikawa -> 17:00 Senzu (Ikawa Line)
17:45 Senzu Stn. -> 18:30 Ieyama Stn. (Kawane-Honcho Town Bus)
18:48 Ieyama -> 19:24 Kanaya (Oigawa Main Line), or the next 20:26 departure

Limited Japanese should be no problem – Google Translate is good enough to get you around most of Japan I think, and transport stuff is especially not too bad, since most everything’s in English too. Oigawa Railway has even specifically been trying to market to inbound tourists recently, to help raise money to restore the full line by 2029, so they’ve been investing in a lot more foreign language materials as a result.

The new president of the company as of June 2024 is Akira Torizuka – who is, as my Japanese friend put it, “famous among railfans for bold marketing ideas targeting fans and residents” and is the one behind these investments. By the way, his blog is, uhhhh, interesting: https://i.imgur.com/aSHFpKr.png

One of the NHK WORLD programs actually did an episode on him recently and the company’s efforts to restore their line, if you’re interested: “Oigawa Railway: A New President Steps Up – Japan Railway Journal” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxDykdqd04o

I just went with a backpack for my one-day overnight trip, so yeah, no real luggage. The Ikawa Line trains in particular are smaller than most in Japan. I think you’ll enjoy it a lot more if you stash any sort of carry-on bag in a coin locker at Kanaya. Oigawa Railway has them available there: https://daitetsu.jp/faq/facilities-06

1. Google maps wasn’t much help, but I was taking a look at the official timetable (https://daitetsu.jp/eng/ft_timetable) and it seems that there’s two trains down from Ikawa to Sensu. Assuming I grab the 15:15 one, would that be enough time to make it down to Kanaya? I can see from your images that it was already a bit dark when you got back to Ikawa.

2. Would you be able to get by with limited Japanese?

3. It doesn’t seem like you had luggage on you. If I’m planning to stay near Ieyama on the way up, should I bring luggage or are the trains a bit tight? Should I try and find some locker near Kanaya?

Thanks!

Luke, thanks so much for the comment – apologies it took me a while to see this! (And for being so far behind with my reports too, hahaha.) So cool you’re doing that as well – would love to hear about where you’ve gone/ridden so far, or which lines you want to ride next! Do you have a Noritsubushi account? If you have Discord you should join the server! There’s a few of us in there who do it and there’s a list of everyone’s profiles. Or if it’s easier, just shoot me an email or something if you want :D Please do stay in touch!!