Japan's Most Scenic Local Train Rides: 5 Routes Worth the Detour
Here’s something the big travel guides don’t tell you: the Shinkansen is efficient, yes, but it’s also mostly underground or elevated — you spend half the journey staring at the inside of a tunnel or the back of someone’s seat. The real Japan, the one with rice paddies going gold in October and fishing villages clinging to cliffsides and rivers you can see the bottom of, reveals itself on the slow trains. The ones that rattle. The ones where someone might get on carrying a box of vegetables. ...