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Place names in Japan can be misleading. In Tokyo, for example, they ended up never building a kabuki theater in the Kabukicho (“Kabuki Town”) neighborhood, and Toranomon (“Tiger’s Gate”) district is filled with white-collar workers, not orange-and-black jungle cats. So if you’re traveling in Niigata Prefecture and notice that there’s a train station called Omigawa, meaning “blue ocean river,” bracing yourself for the possibility that it doesn’t actually have any gorgeous marine scenery would be the cautious thing to do.
Cautious, but also totally unnecessary…
…because if you’re standing on the platform for westbound trains and look across the tracks, what you’ll see.
…is a horizon marked only by a shift in shade of blue as the sea meets the sky.
Omigawa, located in the town of Kashiwazaki, touts itself as “the station closest to the sea in all of Japan,” and while we’re not sure how official that title is, taking the overpass over to the other platform shows that you really can’t get much closer than this.
Trains only stop at Omigawa about once an hour, and the lack of rumbling carriages means that you can easily hear the sounds of the waves from the platform. The sound is so clear that it almost feels like it’s being piped in through the station’s speaker system as relaxing white noise, but it’s all natural, coming from the Sea of Japan shoreline.
Even though Omigawa isn’t the busiest station, it’s positioned on the JR Shinetsu Line, which connects Nagano and Niigata Stations. Nagano and Niigata Prefecture both have several popular travel destinations, and so the sightseeing train Koshino Shukura also stops at Omigawa.
Due to the infrequent train service, if you’re looking to enjoy the view and snap some pictures from the Omigawa platform, you’re going to need to spend a while there. Luckily, there are a handful of other worthwhile attractions in the area, such as the Yoneyama Bridge, Koibito Misaki coastal park, and Nihonkai Fisherman’s Cape seafood market and souvenir center.
▼ Yoneyama Bridge
And if you need even more seaside station beauty in Niigata, there’s another stop worth stopping at less than an hour away.
Photos ©SoraNews24
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6 Comments
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Kumagaijin
I was just in Ishikawa prefecture and there is a school that overlooks the ocean like that. Its called Suzu Shiritsu Otani JHS.
藤原
Kumagaijin
I live in Noto Cho next to Suzu and Suzu Otani中小学校 is in a really beautiful location between sosogi kaigan and Noroshi along 249. This area of Suzu is called Sotoura. When you pass Noroshi in Suzu you and go into the Toyama wan area which is called Uchiura on a clear day you can see the Northern alps from Uchiura. Ishikawa and especially Okunoto is really beautiful and my favorite part of Japan.
I have also used this train from time to time to going to Aomori on the Sea of Japan. This station is located between Joetsu city and Kashiwazaki city in Niigata. You can take a train from Joetsu and go to Niigata, and from Niigata you can take the Tokkyu Inaho which goes along the Sea of Japan all the way to Akita and you can see a lot of natural beauty like small islands along the sea of Japan, Mount Chokai between Yamagata and Akita and other places of natural beauty.
If you like local trains this is a good way to use the JR18 kippu.
Even if your traveling by both motor bike or car on route 8 and 7 along the sea of Japan it’s a really beautiful trip where you see a lot of natural beauty.
Kumagaijin
藤原
Thanks for the response. I drove to Suzu last week from Saitama and explored the Noto Peninsula. Such a beautiful area and coast line. So many small fishing villages and interesting architecture and houses. I came across that school as I was driving around. Imagine being a student or teacher at that school and having a beautiful view of the ocean during class. I think I would become distracted very easily.
I hope to explore more of Japan, but I get bored and lonely very easily travelling by myself so I often just stay at home.
David Cope
Yes, this (and many others) are beautiful lines - but surely none can compete with the Gono line in Aomori?
The Gono train even makes an extended stop so that passengers can go to explore the amazing coastal scenery - and sometimes the driver has to take a special advisory, as to whether the sea is too rough for him to take the train on one stretch, where you do literally feel that you are riding a "train in the sea".
Yuuju
beauty! id love to visit.