Day Out Along the Oigawa River

We recently went to the Oigawa river, which runs down from the Minami Alps, through Ikawa and the dam there, down the valley past Senzu, before finally reaching Shimada and emptying out into the sea.
We drove from Shizuoka city along route 362, which is a nice drive in itself going up through the mountains. I was thinking that it might be nice someday to cycle over these mountains and get down to Senzu where there are some campsites and then maybe take the train back to Shizuoka the next day. But ill wait until the weather becomes a little cooler before I do that.
Sensu itself is the main town along the river, before you reach Shimada. It is the terminus of the railway which comes from Kanaya station on the JR line and its also the terminus for people going further up the valley to Ikawa on that very small train line there.
When we were there, the steam trains were running, there are Thomas the Tank Engine themed trains and ordinary steam trains and for the smaller line there are Thomas related trains which splutter about around the station.



We had a nice meal in the town too, there are a limited amount of restaurants there though. There's a musical instrument museum near the station too and souvenir shops relating to the station and Thomas the Tank Engine.
Just outside the station there's tourist information and a small square which has restaurants souvenirs etc.
In the town a few minutes from the station there's a hot spring too which looked cheap.
We went to several campsites, some cheaper than others, mostly located on the river. A few had hot springs near them, very handy.
One of them which was a well known one, we couldn't get to because a landslide had blocked the road, apparently a regular occurrence around here!

There are bridges across the river too for pedestrians, these bridges are all over Shizuoka and you can get nice scenic pictures of the rivers whilst walking on them.

Finally, we drove back all the way down the river to Shimada and then took the main road back to Shizuoka. There are lots of villages along the way down the river and the train line runs along through these areas too. I liked the area around Senzu the best though.
All in all, it was a nice day, with sunny weather, and the area seems very nice to go for a relaxing holiday with interesting railways, beautiful nature, hot springs, nice restaurants and camping.

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