Feel the wind on a train with no windows
Torokko are open-air train cars with no glass in the windows, so the breeze off the gorge, the sound of the river and the cool air of the tunnels reach you directly. Many run only from spring to autumn, so check the operating days and book ahead.
A small train built to carry workers and materials for hydroelectric dams runs through the deep Kurobe Gorge, over iron bridges and through tunnels high above the emerald river. It takes about 80 minutes from Unazuki to Keyakidaira, the open cars cost nothing extra, and the line closes in winter. Unazuki Onsen is reached by local train from Kurobe-Unazukionsen Station on the Hokuriku Shinkansen.
The starting station of the Torokko Watarase Keikoku train, which climbs the Watarase River gorge from Omama to Ashio in open cars. It runs mostly on weekends and holidays from late March to November, and needs a 700-yen ticket on top of the fare.
A station on the Yodo Line, which follows the Shimanto River and its chinkabashi, low bridges with no railings that floodwater flows over. On weekends from spring to autumn, the Shimanto Torokko adds an open car with wooden seats; the stretch it runs changes by season, and it needs a reserved-seat ticket on top of the fare.
The train takes about 55 minutes from Tateno to Takamori, past rice fields beneath the rim of the Aso caldera and over a bridge some 60 m above a gorge. The line reopened in full in 2023 after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake; it runs on weekends and holidays from March to November, and all seats are reserved.