5 trains for seeing cherry blossoms in Tohoku: Enjoy Japan s spring scenery stripes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stripes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Every year in early April, cherry blossoms start blooming in Japan’s northeastern Tohoku region. Here, trains run through a landscape of floating pink petals, allowing you to enjoy many scenic spots for railways and cherry blossoms!
Such views are available in-between Funaoka Station and Ogawara Station on the Tohoku Main Line, Fukushima Prefecture’s Aizu Railway, Aomori Prefecture’s Tsugaru Railway, as well as from the slope car in Miyagi Prefecture’s Funaoka Castle Park.
When visiting the Tohoku region in the spring, don’t miss out on taking the train to enjoy beautiful cherry blossom trees!
1. Tsugaru Railway s Stove Train (Aomori)
True to its interesting name, the carriages of Tsugaru Railway s stove trains are heated with daruma stoves, a nostalgic relic from Japan s past. These traditional space heaters rely on the burning of coal to perform their function, and the stove trains only run during the winterseason in Aomori Prefecture.
Stove trains were first deployed in 1930, and the trains currently running are fourth-generation ones! Still, the train decor sticks to its traditional roots, with floors and seats all fashioned from wood. What really gives you that vintage mood, though, is the daruma stove installed in front of the carriage for passengers to warm themselves up with.