Getting up from the platform takes just 462 steps, about ten minutes: the ‘mole station’.
The platform for down trains lies inside the New Shimizu Tunnel, opened in 1967, about 70 metres below the level of the ticket office (the depth of a twenty-five-storey building). The only way back up to the surface is a staircase of 462 steps, a climb of about ten minutes that has earned the station the nickname ‘mole station’, the most famous in Japan for this kind of curiosity.
An unstaffed station on the JR Jōetsu Line in the town of Minakami, with very few trains a day; it is a common starting point for people climbing Mount Tanigawa.
ℹ️ The staircase and the platform are open to anyone who arrives, with no permanent ticket office. Few trains a day in each direction: before going up or down it is worth checking the timetable, because a wait here is a long one.
🚉 Doai · in front of the station
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