Day Trip Rail Journey: Narita & Inubosaki Part 1
I had originally planned to do this yesterday, but due to checking the weather (which ended up not being very good today either) and the train schedule, I carried it out today.
This rail journey turned out to be surprisingly packed with content.
First, starting from Keisei Ueno!
From here, I took local trains to Keisei-Takasago, where I transferred to the Hokuso Line toward Narita Airport.
I arrived a little earlier than my travel itinerary, so I decided to take an earlier train.
This turned out to be the right move, as I later discovered that if I had followed the itinerary, I wouldn't have been able to catch the Hokuso Line train I had planned on!!
Ugh. I thought I had planned it out properly 😣
After leaving Keisei Ueno, the first thing to do was to see the remains of the now-defunct Zoo Station.
However, there were more curves than I expected, and I passed it before I knew it.
It was dark, so even though I strained my eyes, I could barely see anything, though I did catch a faint glimpse of what looked like the remains of the platform...
Still, the section between Keisei Ueno and Nippori is incredibly curvy; I realized there's no way to pick up speed there.
And just before arriving at Nippori, the line crosses over the JR tracks; I thought this was a great spot for train watching!
With so many conventional lines lined up and Shinkansen trains emerging from underground in between, I felt like I could watch this view all day long.
I transferred successfully at Keisei-Takasago and headed to Inba-Nihon-Idai.
It was my first time on the Hokuso Line, and after completing the ride, I took the Narita Sky Access Line to Narita Airport.
Both Keisei and JR share a single track to Narita Airport.
There is talk of double-tracking it now, and after riding it, I understood why.
They absolutely should double-track both.
Having to stop midway for trains to pass each other is just... well, you know.
Arrived at Narita Airport Station!
I've been to Narita Airport two or three times, but this is my first time arriving by train.
The Access Line, the Keisei Main Line, and the JR line all have separate ticket gates and platforms.
The fact that even the Keisei lines are separate is something you don't realize until you come here.
there is another exit gate further past this side
Finally, the real JR rail journey begins from here.
Since I'm riding the rest of the Narita Line from the other day, I'm starting from here toward Choshi.
I thought the area along the tracks would be more desolate, but there are actually quite a lot of houses!
I especially didn't expect much residential area between Katori and Choshi, but even if it was mostly on the north side of the tracks, there were houses lined up.
It made me realize that Chiba, within the Kanto region, isn't as rural as I thought.
(My apologies to the locals for having such an impression.)
Before long, I arrived at Choshi.
When I came to Choshi for work the other day and drove to the Katori Interchange, I thought it was quite a distance, and it took a fair amount of time by train as well.
It had been raining on and off today, but the sun started to shine once I arrived here in Choshi.
Just as I was about to reach the goal of the first half, I will continue in the next article.
