四国山地は、小さな場所仕様の小さなインフラがいろいろある場所。ホテル祖谷温泉のケーブルカーもその一つ。
The Shikoku Mountains is a place with various small infrastructures correspondent to small places. The cable car at Hotel Iya Onsen is one of them.
The main building of the Hotel Iya Onsen and a cable car. The cable car is seen at the bottom of the left part.
山の中腹にあるホテル祖谷温泉の本館と、露天風呂のある谷底を、ホテル専用のケーブルカーがつなぎます。急峻な谷と、住居や田畑のある山腹という四国山地のランドスケープを、ホテルの中に魅力的に移し替えています。谷底とホテル本館の間の高低差は170m、50階ほど。露天風呂に行くためにケーブルカーに乗るのは、旅先に、もう一つ小さな旅があるような楽しさで、エスカレーターで地下の浴場に下りるのとは、訳が違います。
驚くのは、ケーブルカーの車内勾配のきつさ。それもそのはず傾斜角は42度。日本でいちばん急勾配のケーブルカーの一つではないでしょうか。そして、それこそがまさに四国山地のランドスケープ。
外国から来た友人に付いて行きましたが、ホテルの話では、毎日１組以上の外国人旅行者が宿泊しているとのこと。６年前のことでした。結構、不便な場所ですが、インバウンドはここまで浸透しつつありました。
付録は、四国山地の小さなインフラの例。かずら橋、森の周遊モノレール、そして、野猿（川を渡る小屋）。
A cable car exclusive to the Hotel Iya Onsen connects the main building on the hillside with the open-air bath at the valley bottom. The landscape of the Shikoku Mountains consisting of a steep valley and a mountainside, where houses and fields are dotted, is attractively incorporated in the hotel. The height difference between the valley floor and the main building is 170m, about the 50th floor. Riding a cable car to get to the open-air bath is amusement like another short journey. That is different from going down to an underground bath with an escalator at a usual hotel.
The surprise was the steep inside of the cable car. The inclination angle is 42 degrees. It must be one of the cable cars with the steepest inclination in Japan. It is just the landscape of the Shikoku Mountains.
I followed my friend from abroad. The hotel told me that one or more foreign tourists stayed every day. It was 6 years ago. It's a place pretty inconvenient to go. Inbound tourists had been expanding to this place.
The appendix is the examples of small infrastructure in the Shikoku Mountains. Kazura-Bashi (suspension bridge made from vines), monorail to tour the woods, and Yaen (cabin to cross the river).
The inside of the cable car in the Hotel Iya Onsen.
The open-air hot spring at the valley bottom in the Hotel Iya Onsen.
The cable car of the Hotel Iya Onsen.
The view from the main building of the Hotel Iya Onsen.
The view from the main building of the Hotel Iya Onsen.
Kazura-Bashi bridge (suspension bridge made from vines) in Iya valley.
The monorail to tour the woods in Iya Valley.
The monorail to tour the woods in Iya Valley.
Yaen (cabin to cross the river) in Iya valley.
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