Slow train to Tohoku

Rugged scenery, good food and a mystical encounter with mummies provide respite from Tokyo

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After the harvest: rural and fishing views along the Tohoku coast between Niigata and Akita. Sunny days belie the ferocious winds that blow in from Siberia. (Photo by Mark Robinson)

MARK ROBINSON, Contributing writer

November 11, 2020 08:00 JST

TOKYO -- In mid-October I rode a slow train along the coast of the Sea of Japan. I wanted to become one of those people in travel posters, looking out from my carriage trundling through the scenic prefectures of Niigata, Yamagata and Akita. The landscape did not disappoint, with mountains and drifting clouds behind fields of autumn rice stubble on one side, and black rocks rising from white foam and dark water on the other.