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The Hiza Railway is a local railroad running between Kumamoto and Kagoshima (“Hiza” is the old name for Kumamoto, “Higo”; “Sa” is the old name for Kagoshima, “Satsuma”), and this train, “Ore-nji-do”, which is a collection of delicacies of Southern Kyushu, runs between Kawauchi or Izumi stations in Kagoshima Prefecture and Shin-Yatsushiro station in Kumamoto Prefecture. This train is a great way to relax and enjoy the scenery along the way and to savor the local cuisine.
🤗 01 Linking the local customs of Kumamoto and Kagoshima
JR Kyushu has a train designer named Ruiji Mitooka, who specializes in designing special trains and has his own design style. Hiza Railway also invited Ruiji Mitooka to design the Orange Cafeteria Train. There are only two cars in the train. Car 1 is designed as a dining room and car 2 is designed as a living room, and there are only 43 seats in the train, so the number of seats is limited and the train is often fully booked.
The Orange Dining Hall trains are not very frequent and run mainly from Friday to Sunday. You can choose the time of day according to your dietary preferences or itinerary. For example, if you want to travel from Kumamoto to Kagoshima, this train departs from Shin-Yatsushiro Station to Kawauchi Station. This is the train that I chose this time.
Reservation Method:
Reservations can be made from one month before the day of the ride.
Frequency:
Train No. 1: Izumi Station → Shin-Yatsushiro Station 11:52～14:07
Approx. 1 hour 43 minutes Fare: 18,000 yen
Train No. 2: Shin-Yatsushiro Station → Kawauchi Station 15:38 - 19:31
Approx. 3 hours and 39 minutes, Fare: 25,000 yen
Train No. 3: Kawauchi Station - Izumi Station 10:01 - 14:07
Approx. 1 hour 58 minutes Fare: 25,000 yen
Train No. 4: Izumi Station → Shin-Yatsushiro Station 16:19 - 18:50
Approx. 1 hour and 33 minutes Fare: 18,000 yen
(The schedule may vary depending on the season, so please check the website for the latest schedule information before departing)
Before boarding the train, the conductor will check the ticket and then hand out an exchange ticket and this certificate of travel, red for traveling in a group car and blue for an individual booking car.
Most of JR's specialty train cars are elegant and high-class. The Orange Eatery trains are also elegant, but the furniture and home decorations are more warm and colorful, using totems and artifacts from both Kumamoto and Kagoshima as decorations to give passengers a taste of the local customs of the two regions.
Departing from Shin-Yatsushiro Station in Kumamoto, meals are served one by one, so passengers can enjoy the beautiful scenery along the way while savoring the taste of the food. Part of the train will be on the beach, and the scenery is amazing. The train I experienced had the most stops, so I was able to experience the whole section of the train.
This is a restaurant-themed compartment with a high degree of privacy and box-like seating, where non-group tour passengers (those who purchased their tickets online, by phone, or at the station) are usually accommodated.
This train is dominated by group travelers, and the open design allows more people to interact together.
Before the official lunch, the train serves some snacks, followed by handicrafts. In addition to being able to enjoy the food, passengers can also obtain a number of local products from Kumamoto and Kagoshima.
There are many sections along the route that are close to the sea, and enjoying such scenery while savoring the food is one of the special features of the Orange Canteen Train.
On this journey, passengers are actually quite busy as there are several stops to be made. Before departing on the Shin-Yatsushiro, passengers are required to confirm their reservation with the conductor beforehand, and then they receive a certificate of occupancy and a few exchange coupons. After getting off the train at the stop, you can use these coupons to exchange for a snack or souvenir from the local people selling souvenirs on the platform, such as curry bread, sea urchin sauce, pork stew, etc. Some of them can be eaten right away, while others can be taken back as a souvenir, so you can say that the whole journey is almost from the beginning to the end of the journey.
This curry bread should be freshly fried and still warm when you hold it in your hand, so be sure to savor it while it's hot.
For these cakes, you can bring them back to the restaurant as snacks. For those that have a longer shelf life, you can choose to take them home as a souvenir. These foods are considered “local” products, so they are unique souvenirs.
🤗 02 Lunch using Kagoshima's ingredients
There is no kitchen on board, and the restaurant in charge of lunch changes from time to time. When the train arrives at a station, a restaurant will bring the meal to the train, and shortly after the train starts, a conductor will bring the lunch to the train. This time, the lunch was prepared with ingredients from Kagoshima, including appetizers, starters, side dishes, main courses, and desserts, and it was a fusion of Japanese and Western cuisines, which made it an enjoyable experience for both the eyes and the tastebuds. This is a true inter-county culinary journey where you can eat food prepared with local ingredients from both regions.
Satsuma fish plate is a famous product of Kagoshima, and the sweet and savory fish plate with white body fish is made into a side dish, which is the third dish of the lunch, and then the main character of the lunch in Kagoshima.
The main course is braised Kagoshima Wagyu beef. The wagyu beef is cooked to tenderness and served with a rich sauce, making it a perfect choice to eat with white rice.
🤗 03 Stopover! Visiting specialty stations and enjoying the railroad scenery
The train stops at two very special stations where passengers are invited to get off the train and explore, the first one is Akune Station. A few years ago, I traveled from Kagoshima City to Kawauchi Station by train to transfer to the Hiza Orange Railway, and it took me one hour on a regular train to get to this station. The locals asked Mr. Ruiji Mitooka to recreate Akune Station so that the residents could come together. The station was built with a lot of trees from the Akune neighborhood, and the overall design is cozy and welcoming.
The station has a library, a children's room and a general activity room. As a place for local residents to interact with each other, there are also performances from time to time to enrich the entertainment life of local residents. There is a cafe in the station, but since the stop is not long, I could not enjoy my meal in the cafe this time. You can take the train by yourself and enjoy the slow time in the cafe.
Another special stop is Satsuma-Takajo Station, where the train stops for about 18-20 minutes and the conductor guides you to the beach. It is an uninhabited station, and railroad fans call it a station with a view of the sea, or a railroad secret. It is difficult to get to this station in normal times, so why not take this opportunity to enjoy it?
Kawauchi Station is the next stop on the “Satsuma Takajo Station,” and it is also the end of the train. It is a unique design of the Fat Satsuma Orange Railway to have a secret place as a good memory before getting off the train!
- Author:japan guides
- URL:https://japan-guides.com/article/culture-45
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