Gono Line and Resort Shirakami

The Gono Line runs 147 kilometres from Higashi-Noshiro in Akita to Kawabe in Aomori, and for about eighty of them it is on the shore of the Sea of Japan — often with nothing between the track and the water but a few metres of rock. It is one of the great coastal railways anywhere, and in winter the waves come over the line.

Resort Shirakami is the sightseeing train that runs it: three train sets called Buna, Aoike and Kumagera, with large windows, sideways-facing seats at the sea and a shamisen player on some services. It stops at Juniko for the blue pond in the Shirakami mountains, at Senjojiki where passengers get out onto the rock shelf, and at Wesupa Tsubakiyama. Reserved seats are needed and the sea-side ones go first. It runs most days in the main seasons.