There is a village in eastern Kochi that you reach by following one river all the way up into the cedar. Umaji is known across Japan for its yuzu, the fragrant citrus that scents everything here from village drinks to winter baths, and it keeps alive the memory of the forest lines that once carried Yanase cedar down out of these mountains. Nothing about the place is hurried. The valley is narrow, the settlements are small, and the reward for the long ride in is a day that moves at the speed of the river.
Getting there up the valley
The Tosa Kuroshio Railway Gomen-Nahari Line from central Kochi City to Aki Station takes one hour. From Aki Station, the Kochi Tobu Kotsu bus bound for Yanase and Umaji takes another hour to reach the Umaji district of the village. Treat the second half of that journey as part of the day itself: the road narrows, the river brightens, and the forest closes in overhead. Look up the day's timetable before you leave the city and settle on your ride back down the valley first, so the day in between is entirely yours.
A village built on yuzu
The heart of the village's yuzu story is the Yuzu no Mori processing complex, and it welcomes visitors: the factory is open from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon. The building itself is described as using locally grown Yanase cedar in its construction, so the workshop smells faintly of the same forests that surround it. Inside, visitors are described as being able to watch the yuzu drink production line and the packing floor at work, with a farm shop standing alongside for bottles and preserves to carry home. Visits are described as possible through the year, though the production line is described as resting on Sundays and national holidays, so a weekday visit shows the place at its liveliest.
The little railway in Umaji
Down in the Umaji district, a short stretch of forest railway remembers the logging era at an unhurried walking pace. The Umaji Forest Railway is open from half past eight in the morning to half past four in the afternoon. Admission costs four hundred yen for adults and three hundred yen for children. It is a small pleasure rather than a grand one — a loop through the trees, the clatter of wheels, and time to watch the valley from a bench afterward — which is exactly the scale this village does best.
A soak at Umaji Onsen
When the walking is done, the village bathhouse is the natural place to end the afternoon. Umaji Onsen's business hours run from ten in the morning to nine at night, so there is no need to rush the day to fit a soak in. The adult admission fee is six hundred yen, and children from age three through elementary school pay three hundred yen. A yuzu village bath after a day along the river is the kind of quiet luxury that never appears on a postcard.
Upriver to Yanase
Deeper in the mountains lies the Yanase district, the source of the cedar that made these valleys famous. Here the memory of the logging lines is at its strongest: within Maruyama Park, the Yanase Forest Railway is described as offering both a riding experience and a driving experience on its restored track. The Yanase Forest Railway runs from ten in the morning to half past three in the afternoon, with a break for lunch from noon to one. Riding the forest railway costs six hundred yen for adults of junior high school age and above, and the forest railway driving experience costs one thousand five hundred yen for those of elementary school age and up. Taking the controls of a forest locomotive in a silent cedar valley is the sort of memory that outlasts any famous-name sight.
Make it a quiet day
Give the morning to the yuzu factory and the little railway in Umaji, take the middle of the day upriver to Yanase, and let the bathhouse close the afternoon before your ride back down the valley. If remote cedar country is what draws you, our guide to Yakushima's quiet cedar forest continues in the same spirit. Times and prices in a small mountain village move with the season, so check the latest information before you travel.