Train Suite Shiki-shima

Train Suite Shiki-shima is JR East's cruise train: ten cars, seventeen suites and never more than 34 guests, on one-, two- and three-night round trips from Ueno in Tokyo into eastern Japan, with visits ashore along the way. Its name is an old poetic name for Japan, Shikishima, written with the characters for "four seasons", and every course is built around a season.

It leaves from a platform with half a number. Ueno was long the terminus for trains from the north, and between its platforms 13 and 14 JR East rebuilt an old luggage platform for this one train and called it Platform 13.5. Guests wait in the train's own lounge in the station, Prologue Shiki-shima, step out of its door onto the platform, and come back to the same room for a farewell party at the end.

The train was styled by the industrial designer Ken Okuyama, who drew the Ferrari Enzo at Pininfarina: a gold-grey body, angled glass ends and a lounge whose windows are cut like the branches of a tree.

There is no single route. JR East runs two courses at a time, changed with the season, and every one starts and ends at Ueno:

• Three days, two nights, in winter (December to March, Tuesdays): north to Mizusawa for the Oigen ironware foundry and dinner in Kitakami, overnight to Aomori, the Tsugaru Railway's stove train and craft workshops in Hirosaki, then overnight to Shiogama for its fish market and sushi on the way home.
• Two days, one night, in winter (Saturdays): Mashiko and the potter Shōji Hamada's collection, an evening under the stars at Kobuchizawa, and a sake brewery in Hakushū the next morning.
• Four days, three nights, from April to September 2027 (Mondays): Aizu-Wakamatsu, then overnight under the strait to Hakodate, a night in a hot-spring inn at Noboribetsu or Lake Shikotsu, back to Aomori or Kuroishi, and Murakami on the last morning.
• Two days, one night, from April to September 2027 (Saturdays): Matsumoto and its Meiji-era school, then the knife-makers of Tsubame-Sanjō.

The train

The Shiki-shima is JR East's E001 series. It is a hybrid: under the wires it runs as an electric train, and where there are none, diesel generators in the two end cars power its motors. Kawasaki Heavy Industries built cars 1 to 4 and 8 to 10 in Kobe; J-TREC built the three cars in the middle in Yokohama.

Cars 1 and 10 are the observation cars, View Terrace Kizashi and Ibuki, lined with contoured windows, with carpets woven by hand in Yamagata. Cars 2 to 4, 8 and 9 hold fifteen Suites, each with a shower and toilet, wall panels in Jōbōji lacquer from Iwate and sofas that become beds. Car 5 is the lounge, Komorebi, sunlight through leaves, with a fireplace, a piano and a bar that stays open except between midnight and five. Car 6 is the dining car, where the train's executive chef cooks French dinners and chefs from the regions come aboard for the other meals. Car 7 holds two rooms with cypress-wood baths: the split-level Shiki-shima Suite, with a tatami room upstairs, and the Deluxe Suite, with a fireplace and a high ceiling.

The Shiki-shima runs on set departure days, and every trip is sold as a tour. JR East publishes each season's departures months ahead and fills them by lottery. Departures from Ueno:

Good to know:

• The summer 2027 lottery is open until 18:00 on 14 December 2026, with results due in late January. The lotteries for winter and spring have closed.
• The night stops are part of the timetable. The winter three-day train leaves Kitakami at 21:10 and reaches Aomori at 08:30; the four-day train reaches Hakodate at 06:20, and guests leave it there for the day.
• Some departures are sold by other travel agencies, not by JR East's own tour company, and one winter date is offered first to JRE POINT premium members.

Departures as of November 2026, from JR East's press releases of 31 March (opens in a new tab), 22 July (opens in a new tab) and 7 October 2026 (opens in a new tab), and the times on the course pages (opens in a new tab). JR East notes that dates and times may change.

Every journey is a tour, priced per person, tax included, with the suite, the meals and visits in the itinerary and, on the four-day course, the night in a hot-spring inn. Applications go in on the Shiki-shima website during each sale period; if there are more applicants than places, JR East draws lots and emails the results, and the fare is then paid by credit card.

A guest travelling alone pays about one and a half times the shared rate, and nearly twice it on the spring and summer courses. Fares from JR East's press releases for December 2026 to March 2027 and April to September 2027, read November 2026; Japanese yen.

No rail pass covers the Shiki-shima. JR East sells every journey as a tour, and the Japan Rail Pass is valid on JR's scheduled Shinkansen, limited express, express, rapid and local trains, so there is nothing on the Shiki-shima for it to buy.

A pass can still bring you to Ueno. Every course begins and ends in Tokyo, so a Japan Rail Pass only earns its price on the rest of the trip: the Shinkansen to Tokyo, or the days after the tour. Bought for the Shiki-shima alone, it saves nothing.

Checked November 2026 against the Japan Rail Pass scope of validity (opens in a new tab) and JR East's trip application page (opens in a new tab).

The visits ashore are part of the tour, with a guide and a coach waiting at the station, and some open rooms or workshops not normally open to visitors. Each course has its own; the places below are the ones the winter 2026–27 and 2027 courses call at.

The nights are spent on board, and on the four-day course in a hot-spring inn in Hokkaido. Every course starts and ends at Ueno in the morning and late afternoon, so a night in Tokyo at either end is the easy way to meet it.

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