Trace three classic views from a train window
Obasute, Yatake and Karikachi have long been called Japan's three great views from a train window. Today only Obasute can still be seen from a moving train; at the other two, you trace the railway's past at old stations and the remains of old lines. Obasute is the easiest to reach, about half an hour by local train from Nagano, which is under two hours from Tokyo by shinkansen.
A small station high on a mountainside on the Shinonoi Line, where trains zigzag in by a switchback to stop. From the platform you look far down over the Zenkoji Plain, rice terraces and the Chikuma River, and at night over the lights of the towns. Local trains take about 20 to 30 minutes from Nagano Station; limited express trains pass without stopping.
The mountain section of the Hisatsu Line between Hitoyoshi and Yoshimatsu in southern Kyushu, where trains climbed over Yatake Pass with a view down over the Ebino basin and the Kirishima mountains. The line has not run since floods in July 2020, and no date to reopen has been set. For now you can see only the old stations and the landscape, not the view from the train.
A small park at the old Karikachi Pass in central Hokkaido, near the remains of the old Karikachi line, which was replaced by a new route in 1966. From the viewpoint you look out over the wide Tokachi Plain and the Hidaka Mountains, the view that passengers once saw from the train. No trains run here now, so you need a car.