A new railway experience. Listen to stories and scenery on the Yodo Line

What is the Yodo Line, which runs along the Shimanto River?

The Yodo Line is said to be in danger of disappearing altogether, and it is said that if you don't ride it now, you may never see it again.
Although there are few trains, if you take the train from Uwajima Station and get off at Matsumaru Station, you will find many hidden attractions that you can walk around, such as hot springs, aquariums, and castle ruins. And the Yodo Line, which has supported the center of people's lives for a long time, is full of many stories.

The ON THE TRIP audio guide introduces the charm of the Yodo Line and the stories that the train has brought with it that you would not notice by simply staying there.
First, listen to the story and highlights of the Yodo Line on the way there. Then enjoy a walk around the town at Matsumaru Station, and listen to it again on the train on the way back, basking in the afterglow of your journey.

The "Yodo Line Theme Song" was also produced by Ehime Prefecture Tourism Ambassador Miyuu.

The narrator is a traveling 𝙎𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙧 "𝗠𝗶𝘆𝘂𝘂". Try playing this audio with "Ready, set, go!" as the train starts. The story progresses with the changing scenery.

In addition, we asked Miyuu to create a theme song for the Yodo Line. This theme song is included at the end of the guide. We hope you will listen to it on the way back from your trip on the Yodo Line, and let it become the theme song of your trip , along with the scenery you encountered and your memories of the day.

Miyuu

Born in Ehime Prefecture, raised in Osaka Prefecture. Belongs to Avex Management.

He gained popularity on YouTube after seeing people singing Western music at temples and shrines in Kyoto with a left-handed acoustic guitar (and sometimes a ukulele), and in 2016, he won the grand prize at the Avex x UUUM Audition. Since then, he has provided the ending theme for TV Tokyo's "Shumatsu Tabi no Gokui," written songs for commercials, and performed live around the country. Inspired by his travels, he is currently active as a reporter overseas on Asahi Broadcasting's "Asa Da! Nama Desu Tabi Salad," in addition to his musical activities.

Ride the Yodo Line with a story and enjoy the scenery from the train window

For example, the Yodo Line audio guide tells this story.

--

Just after 6pm, a train running on the Yodo Line suddenly collided with something that had entered the tracks, and the train made an emergency stop. The scene was a section with many bamboo groves, where deer often appear at night. When the driver got off the train to check, he found that it wasn't an animal, but a bamboo shoot that had continued to stand upright despite being hit by the train.

"That's good," but the train couldn't just leave. It had to be removed to allow the following train to pass. However, the bamboo shoots are tough, so the driver's struggle to remove them became a hot topic online.

So, if there were so many bamboo shoots growing, what happened to the train before? You may wonder. The train before the one that collided had passed the same spot about an hour and 20 minutes earlier. However, bamboo shoots grow slowly until they reach the surface, but once they do, they tend to grow rapidly. There are records of bamboo shoots growing as much as 1.3 meters in a day, so it is not surprising that they would have grown to the point of coming into contact with the train during the 1 hour and 20 minute gap.

--

If you knew that this incident happened on the train tracks you were riding on, you would probably become interested in the bamboo forest that you had casually overlooked until now.
Perhaps the driver of the train I'm riding on is desperately struggling with the bamboo shoots. Perhaps the bamboo grove I just passed is the location of the incident. Hmm, this place is awfully clean, so maybe... All sorts of speculations begin to form. The scenery I was just passing by is transformed into a completely different landscape by adding a little bit of story.

"It also carries with it things that cannot be seen, like love and courage."

There used to be a catchphrase like that, but trains don't just carry people and things. If you ride the Yodo Line, you're sure to encounter things that make you realize that. For example, there's the custom of children waving when they see a train carrying passengers.

When I talked to some locals about this, they told me that the idea of waving to passengers was actually the children's idea.
Children who grew up hearing about their fathers, mothers, older brothers and sisters riding the Yodo Line to school were thinking, "What will we do if the Yodo Line disappears?" and "It would be terrible if it disappeared, so is there anything we can do?" So, a few years ago, they started to take over the tradition of waving at the trains.

As beloved by the locals as it is, the Yodo Line is now facing a crisis, as mentioned at the beginning of this article. This is due to a decline in the local population and a sharp decline in train passenger numbers as more people drive their own cars.
However, there are still people who rely on the Yodo Line for their daily lives, including students who commute to school every day and residents who don't have their own cars and rely on the Yodo Line for transportation.

We may never see this view again. We may not have many opportunities to ride a train with a story like the one I just told you. So, if you visit Ehime, please take the Yodo Line with the story of ON THE TRIP.

Audio guide [Uwajima Station - Matsumaru Station]

Listening to the audio guide app "ON THE TRIP" changes the scenery of your travel destination vividly.

The audio guide app "ONTHE TRIP" is a travel guide app that allows you to explore things that interest you at various travel destinations on the spot, with the theme of " turning every travel destination into a museum ."
The guides cover a wide range of topics, from cultural assets such as shrines and temples, to spectacular views, hot springs, art festivals, and even cultures such as Zen and sushi.

The audio guide is easy to use . Just download the ON THE TRIP app, launch it , and select the spot guide.
When you select a spot that interests you and play it , it will tell you the history and background of the scenery in front of you with audio, text, and photos.

*There are two types of guide playback: GPS-enabled automatic playback and manual playback.

Download the iOS app here

Download the Android app here

Matsumaru Station

798-2101 Matsumaru, Matsuno-cho, Kitauwa-gun, Ehime Prefecture

Matsumaru Station is a station on the Yodo Line of the Shikoku Railway Company, located in Matsumaru, Matsuno-cho, Kitauwa-gun, Ehime Prefecture. It is the only hot spring in Shikoku where "Poppo Onsen" springs up.