小さな秋旅：宇奈月温泉 (A Little Autumn Trip: Unazuki Onsen)

10月24日、横浜から合流してくれた友人と一緒に宇奈月温泉を目指しました。

On Oct. 24, our friend from Yokohama, who arrived at Hotaka the day before, and we took trains for Unazuki Hot Spring.

穂高駅を9:50発、南小谷行きに乗り、南小谷で一両編成の小さな車両に乗り換えました。

We left Hotaka station by the 9:50 train to Minami Otari, where we took a one-car train to Itoigawa.

電車の中で昼食を食べ損ね、糸魚川駅で新幹線を待つ間にささっとお弁当を食べました。

北陸新幹線「はくたか」に乗って、次の駅、黒部宇奈月温泉駅に。

In a one-car train, we hesitated to eat our lunch and we had it during a short time before riding our bullet train in Itoigawa station. We then took a Hakutaka of Hokuriku Shinkansen to the station, Kurobe-Unazuki Onsen.

富山地方鉄道に乗り換えて、宇奈月温泉を目指します。全国的な前線通過で、ここで雨に追いつかれてしまいました。

There we took a local train of Toyama Chihou Tetudo to go to Unazuki Onsen.

Here we were caught by rain. I could not help it because a long rain front was passing over Japan.

ホテルは宇奈月温泉駅のすぐ前にあるフィール宇奈月。（到着したときは雨で、写真は翌朝撮影です）

楽天トラベルでブロンズを貰っているだけあって、アメニティはしっかり整っていました。屋上の♨️は混み合っておらず、最上階にある大浴場と半露天のふたつのお風呂を独占。お湯はとてもすべすべでした。

Our hotel was Feel Unazuki very close to Unazuki Onsen station. (This picture was taken on the next morning, for it was raining on our arrival.) This hotel has won the bronz award of Rakuten travel and supplied a good collection of various anemities. At night we used the bathes on the top floor. We could use both a big indoor bath and a smaller semi-open air bath to ourselves. The quality of the hot spring was very good.

夕食のために外へ。ホテルのすぐ前にはいろいろな日本酒を試飲できるブースも。趣のある和菓子屋さんで、おせんべいを購入。思っていたより小さな温泉町で、あまり食事をする場所もなく、雨の中を少し歩いてコンビニで夕食をゲットしました。

We walked around the town to look for a place to eat dinner. Just across the hotel, there was a rice wine booth where one can try various types of rice wine, Sake, for a small amount of money. We purchased some sweets in a nicely traditional Japanese sweet shop. The town was much smaller than we had expected and there were no restaurants to eat in then. We walked a short distance, therefore, to a neaby convenient store to get some food.

翌朝は三階のお風呂に場所が変更。高さが低くなり、もう少し一般的なお風呂感覚。この時も大浴場、半露天、ともに独占。入り口には、このあたりで採れるのか紫水晶の岩が。お風呂の外にはどっしりとした木彫りの椅子。ホテル入り口では雷鳥さんにお見送りしてもらいました。

On the next morning, we used the other bathes on the 3rd floor. We monopolized this large bath and the semi-open-air bath, too. At the entrance, we found three large amethyst rocks and just outside of the bath, there was a bar corner with thick wooden chairs. Two thunderbirds saw us off at the entrance of the hotel.

前夜は雨でしたが、肝心の翌日はちゃんと晴らしました。

ホテルを出たすぐ前、左側が富山地方鉄道の駅、右側が黒部渓谷鉄道トロッコ電車の乗り場で、そのあいだに駅の足湯がありました。

Though it rained on our arrival, I chased the rain away by the morning!

We had a nice blue sky on the next morning.

Just across the hotel, we found a foot bath between the station of Toyama Chihou Tetudo and the station of Kurobe Keikoku Tetudo.

散策路の景色が綺麗と聞いていたので、トロッコ電車に乗る前に、昔の電車道の散策をしました。

On the night before, we had learned that the sceneries along the walking path are beautiful. So we took a walk along this path before taking a trolley train.

以前はここにトロッコ電車が走っていたようですが、落石注意で、ひとりで歩くのはちょっと怖いような……。　

This is the path where a trolley train once ran. Well, with falling rock warning, it was a little scary to walk alone through it.

トンネルを抜けると宇奈月ダムが目の前に。時間があるので、ダムまで歩くことにしました。

Passing through the tunnel, we could see the whole view of Unazuki dam. As we had enough time, we decided to walk to the dam.

ちょうど放流が始まったところで、ダムの上からその様子を見下ろせました。

Just before our arrival on the top of the dam, the discharge of water had begun. We could observe the discharge from the top of the dam.

散策路を引き返してきたら、トロッコ電車の新しい鉄橋を電車が走って行きました。僕らもそこを走る予定です。

Coming back along the path, we saw a trolley train passing through the new railway, where we were expected to ride a trolley train.