Must-try train experiences in Japan

Sujata's ice cream is famous for being so hard that your spoon barely goes in — travellers wait a few minutes for it to soften while the scenery goes by. It's still sold in 2026, with a vanilla classic and rotating flavours (Yamagata La France from July 2026).

Where to get it: from the trolley on the Tohoku, Joetsu, Yamagata, Akita and Hokuriku Shinkansen; by Green Car mobile order on the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen (their trolleys have stopped); from vending machines inside the Tokaido Shinkansen gates; and at station shops between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka. On board it costs about ¥520, from machines and shops about ¥440.

✔ How to try it: Buy one from a vending machine inside the Shinkansen gates before boarding — it'll be just soft enough by the time you pass Mt. Fuji.

• JR East Service Creation / JR Tokai Retailing Plus / JR West Food Service Net release (26 Jun 2026)
• JR West: on-board sales

Inside the ticket gates at Tokyo Station (Gransta Tokyo, central passage), Ekibenya Matsuri sells more than 150 kinds of ekiben from all over Japan, from 5:30 to 22:00 every day. Its best seller in early 2024 was Gyuniku Domannaka, the beef bento from Yonezawa.

Eating your bento on the Shinkansen or a limited express is perfectly normal; on local commuter trains and subways it's seen as impolite.

✔ How to try it: Arrive 20 minutes before your Shinkansen, pick a regional bento you've never heard of, and eat it with the view.

• JRE Media: Ekibenya Matsuri
• JNTO: Traveling by rail

The Sunrise Izumo and Sunrise Seto still run every night between Tokyo and Izumo (Shimane) and Takamatsu (Kagawa), travelling together as far as Okayama. Coming up to Tokyo, the trains leave Izumoshi at 18:57 and Takamatsu at 21:26 and arrive at 7:08 the next morning. It's the only overnight train left in Japan's regular daily timetable.

✔ How to try it: Book a solo compartment the moment sales open — and wake up to the sunrise over the Seto Inland Sea or Mt. Fuji.

• JR West timetable: Sunrise Izumo / Seto

At Tokyo Station, a Shinkansen that has just arrived is cleaned and turned around for its next run in about seven minutes. The cleaning crew line up on the platform and bow to each arriving train, then sweep through the cars — seats turned, tables wiped, rubbish gone.

✔ How to try it: Stand back on a Tohoku/Hokuriku Shinkansen platform at Tokyo just before your train leaves for the depot and watch the crew bow in unison.

• JR East Tecnoheart TESSEI: Turnaround cleaning (Tokyo)

Instead of a whistle or buzzer, many Tokyo stations play a short tune before the doors close — and some are unique to the station. Takadanobaba on the Yamanote Line plays the Astro Boy theme (Tezuka Productions is based nearby), Ebisu plays the tune from the Yebisu beer adverts.

Enjoy them while you can: JR East is replacing station-specific melodies with one tune per line wherever trains switch to driver-only operation.

✔ How to try it: Ride the Yamanote Line through Takadanobaba and listen just before the doors close.

• Norimono News: Takadanobaba's Astro Boy melody
• Gendai Business: departure melodies and driver-only trains (19 Aug 2026)

Many Japanese stations have their own rubber stamp with a local design, and stamping a notebook as you travel is a classic hobby. JR East also has Ekitag, a free digital version: tap your phone on the NFC tag at a station's stamp stand to collect it, with limited-edition designs and seasonal stamp rallies.

✔ How to try it: Bring a small notebook (or a goshuin-style book) and look for the stamp stand near the ticket gates.

• JR East: Ekitag
• JRE Media: Ekitag (24 Aug 2026)

Doctor Yellow is a bright yellow Shinkansen that measures the track and overhead wires while running at speed. It runs on an unpublished schedule, so spotting it is said to bring good luck. JR Central's T4 set retired in January 2025 (one car is now on display at the SCMaglev and Railway Park in Nagoya); JR West's T5 makes its last inspection runs before retiring in January 2027.

✔ How to try it: See the retired T4 car at the SCMaglev and Railway Park in Nagoya — no luck required.

• JR Central: Doctor Yellow T4 display (PDF)
• JR West: Doctor Yellow T5 retirement (17 Sep 2026, PDF)

Kofuku (幸福, "happiness") Station near Obihiro in Hokkaido closed with its line in 1987, but its little wooden station is covered in pink tickets and cards that visitors leave as wishes. The shop sells a souvenir "Aikoku (Love of Country) → Kofuku (Happiness)" ticket, and there's a Bell of Happiness to ring.

✔ How to try it: It's about 30 minutes by car from Obihiro Station; the shop is open 9:00–17:30 in summer and 9:30–15:00 in winter.

• Visit Hokkaido: Kofuku Station

Drivers and station staff point at signals, gauges and the platform and say their status out loud — "Departure signal, clear!". It looks theatrical but it's a safety method: pointing and calling makes you consciously check, and railway research found it cuts confirmation errors to about a sixth (as reported). Japan's national railways wrote it into their rules in 1970.

✔ How to try it: Watch the driver's cab from the front car of a local train, or the platform staff as your train leaves — then try it yourself on your next platform.

• Nippon.com: Pointing and calling (9 Feb 2026)

The Tokaido Shinkansen's average delay was 1.6 minutes per train in fiscal 2023 — including delays caused by typhoons and earthquakes — across about 372 trains a day. Since it opened in 1964 there have been no passenger deaths or injuries from train accidents.

That's why trains wait for no one: be on the platform a few minutes early, and know that a train leaving "at 10:03" really does.

✔ How to try it: Check the departure board, then watch the clock — your Shinkansen will move the moment the minute ticks over.

• JR Central: About the Tokaido Shinkansen

The penguin on Suica cards and around JR East stations "graduates" at the end of March 2027. Its successor character is revealed on 18 November 2026, Suica's 25th birthday, and takes over from April 2027. Until 30 November 2026, tapping Mobile Suica at Yamanote Line gates collects penguin images in the JRE WALLET app.

✔ How to try it: Tap Mobile Suica at Yamanote Line gates before 30 November 2026 to collect the penguin images.

• JRE Media: Suica penguin graduation (20 Feb 2026)

Tokyo's railways give every station a line letter and number — JY for the Yamanote Line, M for the Marunouchi Line — and big JR hubs also get three-letter codes such as TYO (Tokyo). Tokyo Metro adjusted its codes in 2016 specifically to help foreign visitors, and JR East has extended numbering to Narita Airport and the Nagano area.

✔ How to try it: Note the station number of your hotel's nearest stop — it's quicker to spot on maps and signs than the name.

• Tokyo Metro: station numbering for visitors (2016)
• JR East Nagano: station numbering (13 Dec 2024, PDF)