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Tsugaru Railway Stove Train

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Researched and written by Hinato

stove trainTsugaru RailwaywinterGoshogawaracoal stove

Photo: Amiden / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) · original

What Tsugaru Railway Stove Train looked like originally and what it looks like now are two different stories — both worth knowing before you arrive.

The Tsugaru Railway runs twenty kilometres north from Goshogawara across the flat snow country of the Tsugaru plain, and from December to March it heats three round trips a day with coal.

It is not a preserved railway putting on a show. Kanagi, where Dazai Osamu was born, is on the route. The line is one of the last of its kind anywhere and it survives on exactly this.

What to know before you go

When to go

January–February for deep snow on the Tsugaru plain

Opening hours

Three round trips a day, 1 December – 31 March | Restricted operating days in December

Closed: Stove trains do not run from April to November

Time to allow

Around 1 hour each way | Half a day with a stop at Kanagi

Fee

Ordinary fare plus a stove train supplement — reported between ¥500 and ¥1,000; confirm with Tsugaru Railway

How to reach it

Directions

From Tsugaru-Goshogawara Station, next to JR Goshogawara Station. The stove train runs from 1 December to 31 March, on three round trips a day, with restricted operating days in December. A stove train supplement is required on top of the ordinary fare — reported at ¥500 for the standard ticket and ¥700 for a donation version, with some sources listing ¥1,000 one way, so confirm the current figure with Tsugaru Railway before travelling. Dried squid and drinks are sold on board.

Beyond the guidebook

**Buy the squid on the train.** The attendant sells surume and you grill it on the stove yourself. It is the entire point and it is why the carriage smells the way it does. **Three round trips a day, December to March.** December has restricted running days. Outside those four months the line runs ordinary diesel cars. **Ticket pricing is confusingly reported.** The supplement on top of the fare appears variously as ¥500, ¥700 with a donation, and ¥1,000. Check with Tsugaru Railway directly rather than relying on secondhand listings. **Get off at Kanagi.** Dazai Osamu's family house, now the Shayokan museum, is a short walk from the station and makes the natural break in the journey. **Sit near a stove.** The carriage is long and the heat is local. The seats away from the stoves are genuinely cold, which was presumably always true.

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