Going back and forth takes time. This simple way of riding the same route back and forth is sometimes referred to as “single oscillation. Of course, this is not something to be stubbornly denied or rejected, but it is a natural thought to want to make a change between going to and returning from the same route. In addition, there are cases where, as a practical matter, “repeating the same route back and forth takes an inordinate amount of time. For example, the Tosa Kuroshio Railway Gomen-Nahari Line on the west side of Cape Muroto in Shikoku, JR Shikoku’s Muki Line on the east side, and the Asa Kaigan Railway Line beyond that. The Asa Coastal Railway line, in particular, has attracted attention for its introduction of DMV (Dual Mode Vehicles). However, if you want to take both the Muki Line and the Gomen-Nahari Line, you have to go from Tokushima to Kouura Station (and then directly to the DMV station), turn around and go back to Tokushima Station, take the Tokushima Line to Awa Ikeda Station, take the Dosan Line to Gomen Station, and then go back and forth between Gomen Station and Nahari Station. This time, the train would go back and forth between Gomen and Nahari Stations (or the other way around). Even if you “like riding trains” or “like to travel by train,” there is a limit to the amount of time you can spend on the train. If you are forced to make a roundabout turn in the shape of the letter “∩” with Cape Muroto in between, it is not surprising that you may have a hard time planning your itinerary. Although we have listed the most prominent examples, there are many other places in Japan where travelers may be forced to spend long hours going back and forth on dead-end local train lines.
Can we use buses to connect terminal stations? We would like to turn our attention to transportation other than railroads. In other words, buses. Although not a means of transportation that can be used in all situations, there are bus routes that connect the terminus of dead-end rail lines or stations close to the terminus. If you can use these buses, you can vary your itinerary and avoid the time-consuming back-and-forth. When the author rode all of the above mentioned bus routes east and west of Cape Muroto at once in early 2011, he took a bus from Nahari to Koura via Cape Muroto. In Kagawa Prefecture, the author has also used local community buses to connect the terminus stations of Kotoden’s Shido Line and Nagao Line. There have also been cases of connecting to intermediate stations. The bus from Katsuyama Station, the terminus of the Echizen Railway Katsuyama-Eiheiji Line, passed through to Echizen-Ono Station on the Echibihoku Line. From there, the route headed to Lake Kuzuryu, the last stop on the line, and then back to Fukui. These are all stories from 2010 to 2011, so it is necessary to reconfirm whether or not the same moves can still be used today. Unlike railroads, the revision or abolition of bus routes is not a topic of conversation on the national network, so information is not readily available.
How to Find Bus Routes For strangers, knowing the routes and times of local buses is a challenge. To begin with, there are many things that one does not know unless one is a local, such as which bus companies are in which area. Therefore, I would like to introduce some methods that I have used. First, if you look up the station you want to visit on Wikipedia, you may find a description of the bus route that leaves from that station. If you find it, you are all set. If you know even just the name of the bus company, you can search their website and find out their routes and times. Next, use Google Maps. Display the area around your destination station on the map screen, and then enter “bus stop” in the search window to search. If there is a bus stop nearby, it will appear on the screen, and you can click or tap on the individual bus stop to get information on routes and times. To be safe, use Google Maps only to get information on bus companies and routes, and then search the bus company’s website for final confirmation, although Google Maps is not unreliable. Note that there are examples of bus routes that once existed but have now been discontinued. One example is the route connecting the Nagaragawa Railway and the Echibeihoku Line, whose name was mentioned earlier. There used to be a bus route connecting the bus terminal in Mino-Shiratori, three stops before the Nagaragawa Railway’s Kitano-station, and Lake Kuzuryu, but the route was discontinued in 2002. When the author took the Nagaragawa Railway, there was a person who pulled out his cell phone in the train and said, “I want to go to Lake Kuzuryu,” and called a cab, which is one option. As an example that has made it into the past books, there was a route that connected Shintotsukawa Station, the last stop on the Fudanuma Line (Gakuentoshi Line), and Takikawa Station on the Hakodate Main Line by bus, cab, and (if one had the guts) on foot. However, the buses arrive and depart not in front of Shin Totsukawa Station, but in front of the nearby town hall. This “not in front of the station but with a bus stop nearby” option is also worth investigating.
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