Japan’s last sleeper train to Izumo – Sunrise Express, Izumo Taisha, and a ryokan onsen in winter

Japan has one regularly operating sleeper train left. One. The bullet train network and cheap domestic flights have made overnight trains essentially redundant — except for the Sunrise Express, which still runs every single night from Tokyo Station at 21:50, splitting at Okayama before dawn and heading to either Takamatsu on Shikoku (Sunrise Seto) or Izumo on the San’in coast (Sunrise Izumo). The vlog boards the Izumo route in winter, rides all the way to Izumo-shi Station for a morning arrival, walks through snowy scenery between Yonago and Izumo, visits Izumo Taisha — Japan’s second most important Shinto shrine — eats Izumo soba and zenzai, checks into the Yuyado Souan ryokan for a night of private onsen baths and kaiseki dinner, and flies back to Tokyo on JAL Class J the next morning. A proper Japan trip condensed into about 36 hours. Let me break down what matters.

The Sunrise Express — Japan’s last sleeper train

The Sunrise Express launched in 1998, built on 285-series electric multiple units that are distinctive-looking enough that trainspotters photograph the exterior at Tokyo Station just waiting on the platform. Before the bullet train era, overnight trains were everywhere in Japan. Now the Sunrise Express is the only daily survivor and it has acquired a combination of nostalgia and cult status that makes its tickets genuinely difficult to get.

The ticket situation is the first thing you need to understand. Tickets go on sale at exactly 10 AM Japan Standard Time, one month before the departure date. Not 10:01. Not “roughly 10 AM.” The 10:00:00 window. The most desirable room types — Single Twin, Single Deluxe, and the regular Single — are often sold out within minutes of opening. For foreigners booking from overseas, this is complicated by the fact that the primary booking system (JR-Odekake.net, linked in this vlog) requires a physical Japanese credit card pickup at a JR machine, and virtual card numbers don’t work for the pickup step. You need to use a physical card you’ll have with you in Japan when collecting the tickets.

The vlog’s booking is a B-class Single Twin in Car 13, Seat 11 (a smoking seat — non-smoking alternatives exist and are in the same car type, just choose accordingly when booking). Total price: 24,910 JPY (~$164.65 USD) for the full Tokyo to Izumo journey. That covers the base fare, the limited express supplement, and the sleeper charge. Notably, while the Japan Rail Pass covers the base fare, most JR passes do not cover the limited express and sleeping car supplements — verify your specific pass before assuming it’s covered. The full fare without a pass is the cleanest approach.

The six room types — what you’re actually choosing between

There are no regular seats on the Sunrise Express. Every passenger has some form of sleeping accommodation, ranging from the Nobi Nobi (“lie-down”) open-plan carpeted berths at the budget end to proper private compartments. The options:

• Nobi Nobi seats — The cheapest option (covered by a regular JR Pass, no sleeper supplement needed). Carpeted open-plan berths with small partitions and a view window. Think capsule hotel but with curtains instead of walls. Popular with budget travelers and worth doing once for the experience.
• B-class Solo — The narrowest private compartment, single bunk, compact desk. Good for sleeping, not much else. Upper and lower floors available.
• B-class Single Twin — What the vlog books. A slightly wider single compartment with two bunk beds stacked side by side rather than on top of each other. The name is confusing but it means a bunk configuration for one person with more horizontal space than the Solo. Mid-level floor position — neither upper nor lower deck, accessed from a mid-level corridor. Good balance of space and privacy.
• B-class Single — The most common private room, upper and lower deck versions. Proper single bed, small desk, storage. This is the baseline private compartment most reviewers describe.
• A-class Single Deluxe — The premium private room. Proper desk, chair, washbasin, luggage storage. Functions more like a business hotel room that happens to be on a train. More space, more privacy. Requires an additional supplement over standard B-class.

Room assignment is automatic — you cannot select a specific room number, only the room type. For the Single category, upper-floor berths are preferred by most passengers for the better view and slight extra privacy from the corridor.

What the overnight journey is actually like

The vlog boards at Tokyo Station at 21:50, picks up an ekiben (station bento) for dinner — an essential Sunrise ritual, since the train’s own dining options are limited — and a Sunrise Shower Card before boarding. The shower card (purchased separately from the ticket at a vending machine on the platform or inside the train) grants you a 6-minute shower slot in one of the shared shower rooms. Buy it as soon as you board because the shower slots go quickly, particularly the desirable post-departure window around Yokohama. The vlog shows the shower facilities and the general interior tour of the other car types.

The train is spotless, well-maintained, and genuinely comfortable for what it is. Japanese train cleanliness standards apply throughout. The rooms stay warm on a winter journey. The sound of the tracks — which reviewers either describe as “lulling” or “difficult to sleep through,” depending on their sensitivity to movement — is part of the experience. It’s not a Shinkansen-smooth ride.

The most dramatic sequence of the journey, captured properly in the vlog: the separation at Okayama in the early morning hours. The 14-car train that left Tokyo divides in the pre-dawn dark, the Seto cars peeling away toward Takamatsu while the Izumo cars continue northwest toward Shimane. Then the approach into Yonago station through a surprise snowfall — the vlog describes this as a “snowy miracle” and the footage shows why. The San’in coast in winter has a particular quality of light and weather that rarely appears in standard Japan travel content. And then Lake Shinji comes into view before the final approach to Izumo-shi station, a beautiful preview of the region’s landscape after a 12-hour journey from Tokyo.

Arrival: Izumo-shi Station, 10:00 AM. You departed Tokyo at 21:50 the previous evening. You’ve had a full night’s sleep (ideally) and arrive in Shimane Prefecture with the day ahead of you.

Izumo Taisha — why this shrine specifically

If you’re in Izumo for any reason, Izumo Taisha (also formally called Izumo Oyashiro) is the reason the trip makes sense. This is Japan’s second most important Shinto shrine after Ise Grand Shrine — and arguably more central to Japanese mythology than any other single site. The records go back to the 700s but the shrine itself is considered to predate that, and the main hall (Honden) built in 1744 is a National Treasure in the traditional Taisha-zukuri architectural style, the oldest shrine construction style in Japan.

The deity enshrined here is Okuninushi no Okami — the creator of the land of Japan in Shinto mythology and the god of relationships, marriage, and human connection. According to Shinto tradition, every October on the lunar calendar, all of Japan’s deities leave their own shrines and travel to Izumo for a month-long divine council. Everywhere else in Japan calls this month Kannazuki (“month without gods”); only in Izumo is it called Kamiarizuki (“month with gods”). The atmosphere during this period is reportedly extraordinary, though accommodation is extremely limited.

What to know before you go:

• The approach runs about 700 meters from the first torii gate, uniquely downhill (most shrine approaches lead upward). Lined with 400+ year-old pine trees. Do not walk the center lane — it’s reserved for the deities.
• The prayer style is unique to Izumo: two bows, four claps (instead of the usual two), one bow. The extra two claps represent your partner or desired partner, since this is the shrine of relationships.
• The shimenawa — the massive sacred straw rope at Kaguraden hall — measures 13.6 meters long and weighs approximately 5.2 tons. One of the largest in Japan. It’s the photo everyone takes and the one that genuinely earns it.
• From Izumo-shi station, take the Ichibata Railway to Izumo Taisha-mae Station (about 20-25 minutes) or a bus. Budget approximately 1-2 hours for the shrine grounds, more if you add Inasa Beach (about 1km west, where the gods are said to arrive for the annual council).

Izumo soba and zenzai — the local food stops

The vlog covers lunch at an Izumo soba restaurant, which is the right call. Izumo soba is darker and richer than the pale soba served in Tokyo — the buckwheat is ground with the outer hull intact, giving it a more robust flavor and a grey-brown color. It’s typically served in small stacked bowls (warigo soba) rather than one large serving, and the soup is thicker and sweeter than standard. Izumo’s claim to soba fame is legitimate and the area around the shrine approach has multiple excellent spots.

Izumo zenzai — a sweet red bean soup with mochi — gets its own stop in the vlog. Zenzai is not uniquely Izumo but the city claims a special connection to it: the name “zenzai” is said to derive from “jinzai” (神在, meaning “the gods are present”), which was the food served during the divine council. Whether or not that etymology is accurate, the Izumo zenzai served here is worth trying specifically after visiting the shrine — there’s something that lands well about eating something with that mythology behind it while you’re still thinking about what you’ve just seen.

Yuyado Souan — the ryokan with a very particular hot spring claim

After the shrine and the food, the vlog travels from Izumo-shi station to Shobara station (about 11 minutes) and then to Yuyado Souan, a traditional Japanese ryokan in Hikawa-cho near Izumo Airport. The ryokan has a shuttle service from Shobara station. Total cost for the night including dinner and breakfast: 103,840 JPY (~$684.31 USD). That’s a two-person plan rate that includes the full kaiseki meal and breakfast service — roughly what you’d expect for a quality onsen ryokan in Japan’s top tier.

The hot spring claim that Yuyado Souan makes — and that the vlog notes — is that Yunokawa Onsen is one of Japan’s “Nihon Sandai Bijin no Yu” (three hot springs for beautiful skin), alongside Kawana Onsen in Gunma and Ryujin Onsen in Wakayama. The water is rich in metasilicic acid, which is specifically associated with skin moisturizing properties. The baths are 100% natural source water, unheated and undiluted, with continuous overflow — what Japanese onsen enthusiasts call “kakenaganashi” (free-flowing). This is considered the gold standard in onsen quality.

The property itself

Yuyado Souan is a converted Edo-period kominka (traditional townhouse) from the Tempo period, turned into a 17-room ryokan across three distinct building sections. The vlog shows the full room tour across what appears to be a Kominka no Hanare detached room — spacious semi-open-air bath filled with the spring water, wooden deck, private garden. The antique furnishings combined with the natural surroundings create exactly the visual you came to Japan expecting from a ryokan, but rarely find in the budget tiers.

Five private baths available with different atmospheres — stone, cypress, lacquer wood, indoor, and outdoor configurations. All fed from the source water. The private baths are the highlight: you book a time slot and have the entire bath space to yourself rather than sharing with other guests. The vlog covers this properly and the footage of the stone bath looking out over the garden in a winter landscape is the kind of thing that makes Japan’s onsen culture impossible to explain adequately in words.

The food

Dinner is served at Suzuna restaurant — creative kaiseki cuisine using San’in fresh ingredients prepared daily based on what’s available rather than a fixed menu. The standout local ingredients are Nodoguro (blackthroat sea perch, one of Japan’s most prized fish), Shimane Wagyu beef, and Shijimi clams from the nearby waterways. The vlog covers both dinner and breakfast and the quality is unmistakably above the category average for Japanese ryokan dining.

Breakfast the next morning is the full ryokan format: small dishes, pickles, soup, rice, fish, the whole sequence that requires you to actually slow down and pay attention rather than eating while checking your phone. The ryokan is approximately 5 minutes from Izumo Airport, which makes it a natural final night before flying out.

Return: JAL Class J from Izumo to Tokyo Haneda

The vlog closes with the departure from Izumo Airport on JAL Class J — Japan Airlines’ premium economy cabin on domestic routes. JAL Class J seats are wider and more spacious than regular economy on domestic routes (59-61cm width versus ~44cm in economy), with dedicated overhead bins, priority boarding, and a meal service on longer routes. The Izumo to Haneda route is approximately 75-80 minutes. For a domestic Japan flight this is a genuinely comfortable way to close out a trip, and the Izumo Airport itself is small and efficient — the kind of regional airport where you spend 20 minutes total on the ground side.

Practical planning notes

Getting to Izumo from Izumo-shi station: Ichibata Railway to Izumo Taisha-mae (25 min), or city bus. The bus is timed to meet Yakumo limited express trains. Budget 30-40 minutes from the station to the shrine grounds including walking from the terminus stop.

Best time for this trip: The Sunrise Izumo runs year-round but each season has a character. Winter (December through February) delivers what the vlog shows — the possibility of snow between Yonago and Izumo, Lake Shinji in grey winter light, the San’in coast in an atmosphere completely removed from peak-season Japan tourism. Fewer foreign visitors. October/November for the Kamiari Festival period at Izumo Taisha, when the deities of all Japan are supposedly in residence, though accommodation becomes very tight. Spring and autumn are easier for logistics if this is your priority.

JR Pass coverage: Most JR passes cover the base fare component of the Sunrise Express but not the limited express supplement or the sleeper charge. Check your specific pass terms before assuming full coverage. The Nobi Nobi seats have no sleeper supplement and are typically fully covered — all other room types require additional payment beyond the pass.

Booking timing: Tickets open 30 days before departure at 10:00 AM JST. Set an alarm. Use the JR Odekake website with a physical card you’ll bring to Japan. The most popular room types sell out fast on weekends and during holiday periods. Weekday departures and shoulder seasons are significantly easier to book.

Frequently asked questions

📹 Video by ST Travel