After several years of becoming aware of myself as a “lightweight rail enthusiast” who sometimes feels the urge to take photos of railway scenery, I finally went to the Kominato Railway line in Chiba Prefecture, which had been on my mind for a long time. This year, the Tokyo metropolitan area was hit by cold rain at the time of the cherry blossom blooming, but I went out to take photos when the rain stopped.
It would be more convenient to go out to take photos of local lines by car, but this is a one-day trip to take photos entirely by train, as it is my first visit. The camera I carry on my back is the G9PROII, which I chose for its portability. I use two lenses: the Leica DG12-60 and the Leica DG50-200.
We will travel to JR Uchibo Line Goi Station in the morning and change to the Kominato Railway. We will depart Goi at 9:06am on the train bound for Kazusa-Nakano.
Incidentally, the Kominato Railway does not accept IC cards such as Suica, but I bought a one-day ticket using a smartphone app (see the official website above for details).
Also, there was an old lady selling lunch boxes and rice balls near the transfer point, and the price of two small rice balls was a dreamlike 200 yen, so I ended up buying some. As you know it’s often difficult to find lunch on local line trip.
After a little over an hour of being rocked gently by the diesel train, we arrived at the Tsukizaki Station.
Another shot from above of the train returning from the end of the line.
The reason the focus was out of focus was my mistake of confusing the direction of the train’s ascent/descent. I was so surprised when the train appeared from the left that I panicked and misjudged the appropriate focus point, making a complete fool of myself living up to my name as an eternal beginner.
I pulled myself together and took a shot of the station building through the rapeseed flowers.
It’s an unmanned station, but it’s kept clean. Inside the station building, there was a sign with Mr. Seiya Nakai’s autograph, which was very heartwarming.
Someiyoshino cherry blossoms in front of the station, with the Mori Radio Station art work next to the station square in the background. The flowers were beautiful, of course, but I was also drawn to the feel of the bark on this tree.
Sorry for the long post. Here are a couple more photos.
The black headmark for the 100th anniversary of the opening of the line is really cool.
This photo was taken when the rapeseed field next to the station was in full bloom, and some of the yellow flowers from the field were scattered on the platform.
There was a reason why I didn’t take a picture of the rapeseed field itself at this time. I was planning to visit the famous rapeseed field near Yoro-keikoku Station in the evening, so I thought I’d take plenty of pictures of the “trains and rapeseed” there.
I’ll talk about how this plan backfired a little in a later article.
