土合駅2024夏 ＜Doai Station summer 2024＞

I went to Doai Station, so I'll upload the scene. It's a short video of 3 minutes and 30 seconds.
Doai Station is located on the Joetsu Line, near the border between Gunma and Niigata Prefectures. The Joetsu Line was planned as a straight line route connecting Tokyo and Niigata, but the entire line was opened in 1931, relatively late among Japan's main lines, because there was a deep mountainous area in the center of the line, the border between Gunma and Niigata Prefectures.
Of course, long tunnels were dug just below the pass. The first border was the 9700m long Shimizu Tunnel, which took 9 years to build. And the new Shinuzu Tunnel, which was dug to double the Joetsu Line, is 13940m long and took 4 years to build.
Doai Station has a platform inside the Shin-Shimizu Tunnel for trains heading north. It is located 82 meters underground, and from the station building on the ground level, we have to go down 486 steps to reach the platform. This station is nicknamed "Japan's No. 1 Mole Station."
The day I visited the station was a weekend in August, and many people were visiting the station. Seeing the station has become a tourist trip. Even though it is a station without station staff in the mountains where no one usually lives.
Many people still love trains.
JR East website
www.jreast.co....
Google map coordinates of Doai Station
36.83129222334226, 138.96700661352662
#station #doai #mole #molestation #japanrail #土合駅
アクセスありがとうございます。土合駅に行って来ましたのでその情景をアップします。2024年夏の光景です。
テロップは英語のみとしましたが、おなじみの駅なので、説明は不要かと思います。下りホームまでに486段の階段がある「日本一のモグラ駅」です。

[@MarBiel]

It looks like a few days after.

[@14ikesan12]

It's like a dungeon.

[@curtw8827]

Thank you for this video, never knew this existed. Amazing construction effort. How long is the train tunnel that meets the deep platform?

[@14ikesan12]

The tunnel in which this platform is located is 13,490 m long.

[@wandajackson3410]

486 steps... not so easy for older people like us... Climbing stairs is supposed to be good for the body, but an escalator would certainly not have been bad either 🙄 There would have been room for it next to the steps, but there is a kind of trickle running down the hill... The exterior looks quite modern with the long, pointed roof... 👍 ...and the big white summer clouds remind me of some Japanese anime where you can see them in some scenes 😊

[@14ikesan12]

I think My Neighbor Totoro was also set in summer (and corn appears at the end). The slope beside the long staircase may have been a site for some kind of facility. If it was a drainage ditch, it would have been made more compact and half of it would have been buried underground. However, since this station is usually not used by many people, it may have been judged that building such a facility would be an excessive investment. Although the station has become a tourist spot recently, it is a truly deserted station in the off-season. For a while after this station was built, it was a bustling base for mountain climbing. The stylish styling of the station was probably also in anticipation of this. However, modern Japanese mountain climbers choose to approach by passenger car. The reduction in night trains is a major reason. Mountain climbing that requires returning to the starting point is very inefficient. The stairs at this station are gentle, so I'm sure even you can climb them. I actually climbed them without taking a break. There was no need for lofty words like "because it's there."

[@thomass4965]

Wow. I looked on Google maps. That is really way out in a very hilly and low population area. Who is being served by that station? Where do they come from? You know it’s August by hearing the cicadas in the background.

[@14ikesan12]

This station used to be a base for mountain climbing. A few people used to live around the station. As the main mode of transportation changed to automobiles, the lifestyle changed.

[@SheeplessNW6]

1:53 JR have a sense of humour! Also: in another video I've seen about Doai station, it was said that locally-brewed beer is stored in a room down there, because the temperature 82 metres underground is stable. I wonder whether they still do that. I wouldn't want to have to carry a crate of beer to the surface.

[@14ikesan12]

There are examples in Japan where abandoned railway tunnels have been converted into wine cellars. However, this station does not have any electrical devices connecting the ground and underground. If we were to open a shop, we would need a strong, old-fashioned porter. and 1：53　Can you read it？ The station master gently murmurs that your training isn’t over yet.

[@14ikesan12]

お疲れさまでした。 （階段数462段） 改札出口まであと143ｍ。 階段２か所で24段です。 がんばって下さい。JR土合駅 ↑ That is kind or…

[@SheeplessNW6]

@@14ikesan12 I could read about half, and Google Lens did the rest!