Doai Station — Local services in Honshu

I went there in August of 2023. I took a bus to Echigo Yuzawa and rode the local Jōetsu train south from there. The southbound platform is up on the surface and looks like your typical train station out in the boonies of Japan, but a journey of 486 steps into the depths of the mountain takes you down to the northbound platform. No matter how roasting hot it is up top, it’s chilly down there, and how glad I was that I brought a long-sleever and long sweatpants with me in my backpack. My feet were actually getting cold as well. Let me also warn you that the restroom down there is now closed. When nature called, I had to march back up all 486 up to the station building. (That restroom is open, thankfully.) There was still the waiting room downstairs, but all the “I was here” messages had been removed. There seem to be serious water issues in that room as well, since the ceiling was dripping wet. Speaking of which, while waiting on the platform, the conductor overhead was dripping water on me. The trains also don’t come very frequently. When the train finally came into view, however, it appeared as two tiny points of light far off in the distance. It looked almost eerie, though I knew it was a pair of headlamps. Were I to go back, I think I’d take the Shinkansen up to Echigo Yuzawa, as it’s not that much more expensive than the bus, and you don’t have to arrange...

The deepest station in Japan, with 462 steps to reach the surface, and about 100m with about 30 steps to reach the entrance. All the steps are numbered with every 10 steps, the top is 462, you can see it on the left side. It takes about 10 minutes to climb up all these steps, so give a plenty of time or you’ll miss the train. There is no officer in this station. Moreover, the underground way is from Minakami station (Gunma) to Nagaoka station (Niigata). The way back from Nagaoka to Minakami is the platform on surface. Please beware of that or else you’ll miss the train and have to wait a long time for the next train, sometimes it’ll be nearly 3 hours between 2 trains. Please look the instructions carefully! There is no elevator or escalator in this station. Climbing up with heavy luggage is quite a pain. There are few wooden chairs in the middle for you to have a rest. There is a bus stop in front of...

Doai Station is a seemingly normal countryside station until you try to get to the platform for trains running from Gunma Prefecture into Niigata Prefecture. These trains headed into a tunnel underneath the mountains at the last station and the platform at Doai is hundreds of stairs underground. Head left into the station and across a bridge over the road. You'll start to feel a cold breeze. Head through a door and you find yourself at the top of a massive flight of stairs that disappears down into a long tunnel. Worth having a look, even if you aren't...