Sawayaka Walking in Mori-machi (1) - Enshu Railway Line & Tenryu Hamanako Line

Sawayaka Walking is a walking event held by JR Tokai or Central Japan Railway Company. On June 23, it was held in Mori-machi, a town about 30 km from Hamamatsu. Usually, the walking course starts from a JR station, but this time, it was started from Totoumi-Ichinomiya Station of Tenryu Hamanako Line (Tenhama Line). To get there and join the event, I took two different trains. First, I went to Shin-Hamamatsu Station of Enshu Railway Line located on the west of Entetsu Department Store (it is also run by the same company Enshu Railway Co., Ltd. as the railway). There is a H&M shop on the first floor of the building.

Before I took the train, I charged my NicePass at the ticket booth. It is a green smart card usable for the buses and railway line of Enshu Railway (Entetsu). In railway stations, you only have to touch the ticket checkers in the building or platform with your NicePass. At 7:12, I took a train to Nishikajima. This line is called “akaden (red train)” by local people because their trains are usually red. But the one I took was green.

It was comfortable to ride this train. It is an elevated railway, and it was interesting to see the town below. It took 33 minutes to get to the last station Nishikajima. There I got off and took a train of Tenhama Line. The platform was in the same station, and it was easy to find the way though I had only a few minutes to change the train. Like other trains of Tenhama Line, it had only one car, but I could have a seat. There were already many people who were apparently going to join the walking event.

I got to Totoumi-Ichinomiya Station at 8:11. On the platform, there were some station attendants who collected fees. I gave the numbered ticket I got from a machine in the train to one of them and paid 470 yen. The fee of Enshu Railway Line was also 470 yen, so I paid 940 in total.

Later, I learned that there are two kinds of one-day tickets for the combination of Enshu Railway Line and Tenhama Line. One of them is an eastern route ticket including unlimited rides for Tenhama Line between Nishikajima and Kakegawa, and the other is a western route ticket including unlimited rides for Tenhama Line between Tenryu-Futamata and Shinjohara. They also include unlimited rides for Enshu Railway Line and cost only 1450 yen for adults and 730 yen for children. I should have bought an eastern route ticket. Enshu Railway Line and Tenhama Line have also their independent one-day tickets, which cost 1000 yen and 1700 yen respectively (500 yen and 850 yen for children).