Tickets for $22,000 in Japan’s new superluxury train
Japan’s super-deluxe train left the station on Saturday with a select group of passengers who paid thousands of dollars for a trip harking back to an era of Art Deco opulence and a slower pace of life.
The Twilight Express Mizukaze departed Osaka on its maiden trip with around 30 well-heeled passengers on a journey to the far reaches of Japan’s main island.
A couple staying in the 10-car train’s top room, The Suite, paid out a combined 2.4 million yen ($22,000) for a two-night, three-day return trip that rolls past emerald green rice paddies, craggy coastlines and ancient shrines.
That eye-popping price tag gets you five-star hotel luxury, including a marble-floored bathroom with claw-legged tub in the priciest suite, food prepared by gourmet chefs, and sumptuous lounges where you can sip cocktails as you take in the dramatic scenery through huge viewing windows.
The Mizukaze, which means “fresh wind” in Japanese, is just the latest luxury offering in train-mad Japan, which has an extensive railway network covering most of the country.
These top-end rolling hotels pay homage to sleeper cars that were overtaken by Shinkansen bullet trains that cut hours off travel times.
“Things have been reset, giving birth to a new breed” of trains, said photojournalist and train expert Kageri Kurihara after touring The Mizukaze.
“Train companies are trying to show what they can do without constraints. You may have this idea that sleeper trains are cramped and inconvenient but these railways are saying ‘look what we can offer!’