This post is continued from the previous post, Trip to Aizu, Nikko and Hakone in 2014 winter – Part 4, Kinugawa Onsen to Ashinomaki Onsen.
I got off Aizu Railway’s train at Ashinomaki Onsen. But I did not intend to take a Onsen bath here. The reason why I got off was very popular Ramen noodle here in Ashinomaki Onsen and I wanted to catch another interesting Aizu Railway’s train after eating Ramen.
I got to go to Ramen Restaurant right after I got off the train. Because I had only 45 minutes interval. And also this Ramen restaurant is very very popular and sometimes a huge line up to wait for in summer time. It was winter season but there are lots of winter festivals along Aizu Railway. I could not be optimistic.
The restaurant is very closed to Ashinomaki Onsen station. It took only 1 minute.
The restaurant’s name is “Gyunyu-ya”. That means milk store. The first owner of this store opened milk store. But she learned how to make Ramen from Chinese neighborhood. She also started to sell Ramen too. That is why they still use name, “Gyunyu-ya”. In Aizu region, Ramen is one of local favorite. Gyunyu-ya is one of the big names in Aizu.
At that time, there was no line up.
I got the table easily. In winter time, it is not very hard to get it in.
This restaurant was introduced in TV program many times. There are lots of autograph of TV stars on the wall.
Unfortunately the menu was written in 100% Japanese. So I cannot recommend this restaurant everybody.
In this restaurant, Sauce Katsu-don is very popular too. Sauce Katsu-don is the breaded deep fried pork and fresh shredded cabbage over the rice with Japanese Tonkatsu sauce. This rice dish is very popular in Aizu region too.
If you read my previous post, you know I was very hungry. I could not eat any breakfast. So I ordered the combination of BBQ Pork Ramen and half size of Sauce Katsu-don.
The taste was that I expected. It was soooo yummy. I was very very satisfied with this combination dishes.
I could finish my lunch in 30 minutes. I went back to Ashinomaki Onsen station.
This station is one of popular stations in all Aizu Railway’s. Because the station master is the cat. But I could not find him there. I have heard that he was too old to stay in the station.
In the station, there were lots of local items and souvenirs.
Most of local railway companies are facing very serious financial situation. They try to make a profit by many ways.
The station master is the cat. So there was the private shrine of Aizu Railway beside the station. There were lots of cat items and photos.
From this station, I took Ozatoro-Tenbo train. This train is three cars formation. But each car has different accommodation. Ozatoro-Tenbo is named from this three different accommodations. The first one is Ozashiki (Oza of Ozatoro) that means Tatami seat.
The second one is Torokko (Toro of Ozatoro) train that is open air car. But it was not open air car because it was freezing winter.
And the last one is Tenbo that is observation panorama window car. I had a seat in this car.
As you see the photos, it was almost empty in this train. It was completely different from Aizu Mount Express that I took from Kinugawa Onsen station.
After 45 minutes ride of this train, I arrived in Aizu Wakamatsu. I took pictures for both end. The first one is the car of “Tenbo”.
Other end is nothing special.
In Aizu Wakamatsu, I enjoyed very short sightseeing. I will talk about it in next post, Trip to Aizu, Nikko and Hakone in 2014 winter – Part 6, sightseeing in Aizu Wakamatsu.
