SL Fuyu no Shitsugen-go

Instead of taking the complimentary shuttle bus from our hotel to the airport in Kushiro, we decided to take the steam train for one final adventure in Hokkaido.

The engine pulls into Shibecha station.
Taking the Fuyu no Shitsugen-go (Winter Bog) is a special event. It’s a tourist event for train geeks. The train spotter in me was happy to be riding it.

Each car has a “daruma stove” that the conductor kept well stoked with coal.
The cars are decorated with stuffed foxes, deer and owls plus lots of fake branches with polyfil snow draped on them. It’s just silly because the real sights were outside: fields full of grazing deer; steam from the engine drifting through the trees; and a fox on the hillside.