Day 2, and the JR Pass was officially switched on. First ride: the JR Narita Line out to Sawara, a canal town about 40 minutes from Narita that they call “Little Edo”.
The Slow Train
It’s a proper countryside line: a two-car train, single tracks and tiny stations in the middle of the rice fields. Except it was typhoon season, and a tree had come down on the tracks. The train stopped at one of these tiny stations and everyone had to get off. Middle of nowhere, nothing to do but wait and take photos, until a train finally came to take us on to Sawara.
Little Edo
Sawara got rich in the Edo period shipping rice and soy sauce down the river to Tokyo, and a lot of the old merchant houses are still standing along the Ono River, with willows hanging over the water. Swans too, for some reason.
Floats on the Street
We got lucky: there were festival floats out on the main street, huge wooden ones with carved figures on top, with people in happi coats hauling them along and drums going. The whole town was out watching.
The Boat Ride
Then the boat. A boatman takes you down the canal and back in a flat little boat, about half an hour, under the bridges and past the old houses. Life jackets on, obviously.
Back on land, we looked into one of the old houses, open to visitors, and caught the “Jaa Jaa Bridge”, an old aqueduct bridge where water pours out into the canal every half hour.
The Float Museum
To see the floats properly, the float museum by Yasaka Shrine has two of the real ones inside, each about as tall as a house, with giant figures on top.
Lunch was a quick bowl in town. No trains were running back and we were tired, so we took a cab back to Narita, and got the shock of our lives at the meter: ¥9,200.
Back in Narita by the afternoon for a second go at the temple, this time with sun: Naritasan Shinshoji.
Information About Sawara
An old merchant town on the Ono River, about 40 minutes by JR from Narita. Walk the canal, take the little boat, and see the festival floats in the museum.