Visiting the Ōigawa inspired by Yuru Camp Season 3

A day trip algong the beautiful valley of the river Ōi with the Ōigawa Railway

2025-02-14
Anime, Anime Tourism, Yuru Camp, Japan

Introduction
The Plan
Kanaya Station
Yappashi Komichi Love Romance Road
Okuōikojō
Nagashima Dam
Abt-Ichishiro Campground
Mystery Tunnel
Abt-Ichishiro
Senzu
Ryōgoku Tsuribashi
Afterword

Introduction

I have been a fan of Yuru Camp since the first season, and I was very excited when the third season was announced. It was airing while I was in Japan and easily reachable from my location in Tsu by local and express trains. So I decided to visit the Ōigawa Railway and the surrounding area.

It took a while to get this blog post up (exactly 8 months), but I actually visited the spots fairly soon after the anime aired (less than two months after the release of episodes 3 and 4, the episodes that features the locations I visited). I hope you enjoy the pictures and the little trip report.

The Plan

Since it is a pretty remote area and trains are not very frequent, I had to plan my trip carefully. I checked the train and bus schedules and made a plan for the day, so I wouldn’t end up stranded.

Starting from my Hotel in Hamamatsu, I took the train to Kanaya at 6:23 AM, where I changed to the Ōigawa Railway. Due to typhoon damage in 2022, the train was not running all the way to Senzu, so I had to get off at Ieyama at 7:49 AM and took the community bus to Senzu at 8:15 AM.

From there, I took the train to Sessokyō Onsen, where I arrived at 10:28 AM.

The train ride itself was already very scenic, and I could see the beautiful valley of the river Ōi. The announcer in the train also pointed out some of the sights along the way. Unfortunately I could not understand much due to the train noise.

From there I took the Yappashi Komichi Love Romance Road as seen in the anime and walked back all the way to Abt-Ichishiro Station to enjoy the sights along the way and then catch the train back to Senzu.

With that, let’s get to the pictures!

Kanaya Station

The start of the Ōigawa Railway. As I don’t have a license, I used the train, just like Nadeshiko. However, I didn’t follow the Nadeshiko route as I wanted to also take the Yappashi Komichi Love Romance Road.

I didn’t have screenshots from the Nadeshiko route with me, so here are the pictures I took freely.

The train you can see on the right looks similar to the Tōkaido Main Line trains that run there in real life, but the Ōigawa Railway train is a different model than the one I took.

Yappashi Komichi Love Romance Road

From Kanaya I first went all the way to the Yappashi Komichi Love Romance Road, so I arranged the pictures in that order too.

It was quite overgrown, so I didn’t recognize it immediately.

Here comes the first of the seemingly endless series of bridges:

Just like in the anime, one bridge, located to the right of the sign, isn’t accessible.
But since we’re only at the beginning, we’ve still got plenty to get through.

I’m already getting tired of photographing all these bridges.

Luckily no water on the bridge for me. The weather was really nice that day.
The sun was actually quite strong through the open windows of the train on the way here.

Tsubaki Bridge is what every foreigner thinks of when they think of Japanese bridges.

Only two more to go.

If I had brought a tripod, I could have copied the poses and taken a picture of myself.

That was a nice little walk, with a lot of bridges.
It took me about 40 minutes from the first bridge to the end, but only because I took a lot of pictures.

Okuōikojō

Located on a cliff next to the Okuōi Reservoir created by the Nagashima Dam, Okuōikojō Station is a very scenic train station designated as one of the 100 most beautiful train stations in the Chūbu region.

Nagashima Dam

Inside the small exhibition at the management office, there was also a Yuru Camp map, but the leaflets were all gone. I wonder if they made a version with the Anime now, because when I was there it was all from the Yuru Camp Manga.

At Nagashima Dam, I also met a group of Japanese tourists who came with their car and were very friendly.

This location is a little walk away, but I didn’t go all the way there because I didn’t want to risk missing the train back to Senzu.
In the end, I still had some time left, but I didn’t know that beforehand and didn’t want to risk it.

Abt-Ichishiro Campground

This is the campground where Rin, Nadeshiko and Ayano stayed in the anime. It’s just a short walk down the road from the Dam.

Mystery Tunnel

Connecting the Campground and Abt-Ichishiro Station is a pitch black tunnel that is apparently the remains of the old Ikawa line that used to run there before the dam was built. It now has various “ghosts” placed inside so it doesn’t get boring walking through it. Don’t forget to bring a flashlight or use your phone’s flashlight because it really is pitch black inside.

Without light, it’s way to dark too take a picture.

Abt-Ichishiro

This is the station where the Abt rack railway starts.
You get off the train here to watch the rack locomotive connect to the train and then take you up the mountain with a maximum gradient of 9%.

This is also the station Nadeshiko gets off to go through the tunnel to the campground and the dam.
She says goodbye to the ladies from Mie she met on the train here. I also lived in Mie at the time, so I was happy to see some representation.

Here are some pictures and videos of the Abt System rack railway.

Senzu

Here is where you change between the Ikawa Line and the Ōigawa Main Line or the bus between Senzu and Ieyama, since part of the line is still closed due to typhoon damage.

Sadly, I couldn’t try the Dam Curry as it was only available from 11:00 to 16:00, and I was there too early and too late.
I did, however, get to eat the ice cream like Nadeshiko.

The pork skewer stand was also closed when I was there.

Inside the station, the Yuru Camp characters were present.

Walk a little bit down the road, and you can see the crossing where Rin and Ayano continue their journey.

What happened here? I only took a picture from the other side??
Well, whatever, on the side here there’s a gas station, and if you’re lucky you can see their Yamaha Vino — it’s Rin’s scooter! And even in the same color!
Yamaha actually made one in the same colors as Rin’s scooter, but this one seems to be a custom wrap or paint job.

Ryōgoku Tsuribashi

This suspension bridge can be visited with a ~15 minute walk from Senzu Station. I had just enough time to visit it before my train back to Ieyama.

Afterword

I had a great time visiting the locations from Yuru Camp Season 3 and I can only recommend it to other fans of the series. The area is very beautiful, and the train ride alone is worth it in my opininon. Ideally, you should stay for a night in the area for a more relaxed experience. I hope you enjoyed this little trip report, and maybe it will inspire you to visit the area yourself. If I have the chance, I would love to visit the Ōigawa again and maybe stay a night at one of the Onsen or camp at Abt-Ichishiro Campground.

Also, I didn’t get to visit the Hōrai Bridge nearby, which I want to do next time. It also appeared in the anime and is apparently the world’s longest wooden pedestrian bridge.

That was a long post with a lot of pictures, but I hope you found it interesting.

As always, let’s end with some links to other people’s reports:

Also, there’s a whole website about Yuru Camp locations in Shizuoka: https://yurucamp-shizuoka.com/