Resort Shirakami

The Gonō Line runs 147.2 km round the north-west corner of Honshu, from Higashi-Noshiro in Akita Prefecture to Kawabe in Aomori. It is single track and unelectrified, and for most of its length it follows the Sea of Japan, under the hills of the Shirakami range, a World Natural Heritage site. Its name joins the two towns it was built to link, Goshogawara and Noshiro.

Since 1997 JR East has run a sightseeing train over it, the Resort Shirakami: a rapid from Akita to Aomori, with big windows, observation lounges and box seats. On the coast it slows down for the views, and for a quarter of an hour it stops at Senjōjiki so passengers can walk on the rocks. Local musicians and storytellers board along the way, and in 2026, the line's 90th year, a geopark guide joined them.

Every seat is reserved, and the train is a JR East service like any other: a JR pass covers it.

From Akita the train runs north on the Ōu Line past Hachirōgata to Higashi-Noshiro, where it turns onto the Gonō Line. It stops at Noshiro, a basketball town with a hoop on the platform, and then reaches the sea near Akita-Shirakami.

The coast

From Iwadate to Ajigasawa the line keeps to the shore, beside the coast road, crossing small rivers on viaducts and running through short tunnels; one, near Jūniko, is only 9.5 m long. On the stretch from Iwadate to Ōmagoshi, between Ōdose and Kita-Kanegasawa, and near Senjōjiki, the Resort Shirakami slows down so the view lasts. Get off at Jūniko for the lakes in the beech forest, or at WeSPa Tsubakiyama for the bath on the rocks at Furofushi.

Fukaura, a port, is known as the town of sunsets; trains 4 and 5 pass it late in the afternoon. At Senjōjiki four of the six trains wait 15 minutes beside a shelf of rock lifted out of the sea in 1792. From the window near Kita-Kanegasawa look for a giant ginkgo, about 31 m tall and the largest in Japan, gold in late autumn.

The Tsugaru plain

At Ajigasawa the line turns inland across rice fields to Goshogawara, the Tsugaru Railway's junction for Kanagi, then through apple orchards to Kawabe. Here the train runs a few kilometres south on the Ōu Line to Hirosaki, reverses, and comes back through Kawabe for Shin-Aomori, on the shinkansen, and Aomori. It is the only train that runs through from the Gonō Line to Aomori. Mt Iwaki stands over the plain.

The trains

Three four-car trains share the work, named for the Blue Pond, the beech and the black woodpecker. Aoike is blue and white; Buna is green, painted with trees. Both are HB-E300 hybrids: a diesel engine and lithium-ion batteries drive electric motors, and braking recharges the batteries. The third, Kumagera, is converted from older KiHa 40-series railcars. The Buna has observation lounges in its end cars, and all three have four-seat box compartments in car 2.

From April to early December the Resort Shirakami runs every day, three trains each way: two between Akita and Aomori and one between Akita and Hirosaki. In winter it runs mainly at weekends and holidays, plus every day over New Year and in the second half of January, with two trains each way and no Hirosaki pair. Every seat is reserved.

Akita to Aomori

Aomori to Akita

Good to know:

• Times are departures. No. 3 ends at Hirosaki and No. 6 starts there; a dash means the train does not call.
• Senjōjiki. Trains 2, 3, 4 and 5 stop for 15 minutes so you can walk on the rocks; the train leaves at the time shown.
• Which train. The three sets, Aoike, Buna and Kumagera, rotate; JR East's calendar shows which set runs each train on each day.
• 2026. On 19–23 October and 10–13 November only trains 1, 2, 4 and 5 run.
• Weather. On the coast, high waves and strong wind can stop or delay the train.

Times as of October 2026, from JR East's Resort Shirakami timetable and its October 2026 station timetables. Check the day and the set on JR East's timetable and calendar (opens in a new tab).

The Resort Shirakami needs two tickets: an ordinary ticket for the distance, ¥4,180 from Akita to Hirosaki, and a reserved seat at ¥840, the same on every train and for any distance; children pay half of both. Seats go on sale at 10:00 one month before travel, at JR ticket offices and machines and on JR East's online booking site, and cannot be bought on board. The box seats in car 2 seat four and are booked the same way.

Fares checked October 2026 against JR East's Resort Shirakami pages and its March 2026 fare table; Japanese yen.

The JR passes cover the Resort Shirakami, and the reserved seat is free to pass holders — but it must still be booked before boarding, at a ticket office, a machine or JR East's online booking site. The JR EAST PASS, ¥35,000 for five days or ¥50,000 for ten, covers it, and so does the Japan Rail Pass, ¥50,000 for seven days; JR East's page lists its other passes that apply.

For this journey alone, a pass is not worth buying: Akita to Hirosaki costs ¥4,180 plus ¥840 for the seat. It pays when the Resort Shirakami is one day of a longer trip, since Akita is at the end of the Akita Shinkansen and Shin-Aomori is on the Tōhoku Shinkansen, so the line makes a loop from Tokyo out on one shinkansen and back on the other.

Checked October 2026 against JR East's Resort Shirakami (opens in a new tab) and JR EAST PASS (opens in a new tab) pages and the Japan Rail Pass prices (opens in a new tab).

With three trains a day each way in season, a stop costs a few hours: get off one train and catch the next. The coast stops, Jūniko, WeSPa Tsubakiyama and Fukaura, are the reason to break the journey; the castle towns at either end are easier to see the day before or after.

Akita, Hirosaki and Aomori have plenty of city hotels near their stations. A night on the coast turns the ride into two easy days: a hot-spring hotel at Akita-Shirakami, a cottage by the Jūniko lakes, or the inn of the seaside bath at Furofushi, where the sunset is the point.

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